LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, 

©ffap, ©npijrig^t Ifo. 

Shelf ISSB 5 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



SILENCE 



WITH OTHER SERMONS 



SILENCE 



WITH OTHER SERMONS 



EDWARD CLABENCE PAGET, M.A., Oxon. 

RECTOR OF TRINITY CHURCH, MUSCATINE, AND DEAN OF SOUTHERN IOWA 



UFFH 15 1896j 

NEW YOEK 
LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. 

LONDON AND BOMBAY 

1896 




Copyright, 1896, by 
E. C. PAGET 



Press of J. J. Little & Co. 
Astor Place, New York 



TO 

THE PARISHIONERS 

OF 

TRINITY CHURCH, MUSCATINE 
IN GRATEFUL MEMORY 
OF 

TEN YEARS OF FRIENDSHIP AND 
FELLOWSHIP IN JOY AND SORROW 

AND 

WITH SINCERE AFFECTION 
THIS VOLUME OF SERMONS 
IS DEDICATED 



PEEFACE. 



If an apology be thought necessary for the publi- 
cation of these sermons, the writer would adopt that 
of Canon Scott Holland in his preface to "Logic 
and Life," which admirably covers the ground. 

The sermons in this volume were prepared and 
preached on very various occasions during the past 
years, and on both sides of the Atlantic, and it is 
not, perhaps, too presumptuous a hope that they 
may be found suggestive or otherwise helpful by 
some few who may read them. 

The outline of the Christian Year has been fol- 
lowed in the order of their arrangement. 

The series begins with some thoughts on the " Si- 
lence " of Advent expectation, and closes on All 
Saints' Day with the " Worship of the Church, Mili- 
tant and Triumphant," where it rises up before 
the Throne of the Most High " as the voice of 
many waters." 

E. C. P. 

Muscatine, Iowa, Oct., 1895. 



Contents 



t. SILENCE. 

PAGE 

" And when He had opened the seventh seal there was silence in Heaven 

about the space of half an Aow. 11 — Rev. vin. 1, 1 

Preached in Trinity Church, Muscatine, on the First 
Sunday in Advent, 1892. 

II. " THE INTERPRETER OF HOLY SCRIPTURE." 

" And Philip ran thither to him and heard him read the Prophet Isaiah, 
and said, ' 'Under -standest thou what thou readest; ' and he said, How can I 
except some man should guide mef Then Philip . . . began at the 
same Scripture and preached unto him Jesus."— Acts viii. Parts of 30, 
31,35, 12 

Preached in Muscatine, Second Sunday in Advent, 1892. 

III. THE VOCATION TO THE PRIESTHOOD. 

" No man taketh this Iwnour unto himself but he that is called of God as 

was Aaron."— Hvb. v. 4, 22 

Preached at the Ordination to the Priesthood of the Rev. 
L. P. McDonald at Emmetsburg, Iowa, Advent, 1888. 

IV. THE KING AND THE KINGDOM. 
" Thine eyes shall see the King in His beauty, they shall behold the land, 

that is very far off."— Isaiah xxxiii. 17, 31 

Preached in S. George's Church, Sutton West, Canada, 
Fourth. Sunday in Advent, 1886. 



x CONTENTS. 

V. THE HOLY NATIVITY. 

PAGE 

" Glory to God in the Highest, and on earth peace, good will to men. 

—Luke ii. 14, 

Preached in Muscatine, Christmas Day, 1890. 



42 



VI. WISDOM. 

" The fear of the Lord is the beginning of ivisdom.' 1 ''— Psalm cxi. 10, . 46 
Preached in Muscatine. 

VII. SELF-MASTERY. 

"He that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things.' 1 ' 1 — 1 Cob. 

ix. 25, 53 

Preached in Muscatine. 

VIII. EVOLUTION. 

" My Father worketh hitherto and I work." 

" 0 Lord how manifold are Thy works. In wisdom hast Thou made them 
«#."— S. John v. 17 ; Psalm civ. 24, 59 

Preached in Muscatine, Septuagesima, 1891. 

IX. EVERLASTING LOVE. 
" The Lord hath appeared of old unto me saying, Yea, I have loved thee 
with an everlasting love, therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee.'''' 
—Jeremiah xxxi. 3, . 65 

Preached in Dorchester Abbey, Oxon, Quinquagesima, 
1882, and in Muscatine. 



X. THE POWER OF SATAN. 

" To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from 
the power of Satan unto God.''''— Acts xxvi. 18, . . . . ■ . .74 
Preached in Dorchester Abbey and in Muscatine, First 
Sunday in Lent. 



CONTENTS. 



xi 



XI. THE EXILE OF SIN. 

PAGE 

ye not for the dead, neither bemoan him, but weep sore for him 
that goeth away for he shall return no more, nor see his native country."— 
Jeremiah xxii. 16 . 82 

Preached in S. Peter's Church, Frampton, Cotterell, Eng- 
land, 1876. 

XII. THE TWO WITNESSES. 

" And I will give power unto my two witnesses and they shall prophesy. 
And when they shall have finished their testimony the Beast that ascendeth 
out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them and kill them, and 
their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is 
called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord ivas crucified. 

" And after three and a half days the Sjnrit of life entered into them, and 
they stood upon their feet, and great fear fell on all who saw them. And 
they ascended up to heaven in a cloud, and their enemies beheld them."— 

Rev. xi. 3, 7, 8, 11, 89 

Preached in Frampton, Cotterell, Lent, 1876. 

XIII. THE WAY OF LIFE. 

" Jesus said, ' lam the Way, the truth, and the life.' 1 "-S. John xiv. 6, • 96 
Preached in Muscatine, Third Sunday in Lent, 1887. 

XIV. THE BLOOD OF CHRIST. 
"How much more shall the blood of Christ, Who through the Eternal 
Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead 
works to serve the Living God."— Hee. ix. 14, . 104 

Preached in S. Peter's Church, Cranley Gardens, London, 
Palm Sunday, 1883. 

XV. THE SATISFACTION OF THE RISEN LIFE. 

" When I awake up after Thy likeness I shall be satisfied with it." — 
Psalm xvii. 16, . 113 

Preached in Dorchester Abbey and in Muscatine, Easter Day. 



xii 



CONTENTS. 



XVI. AN EASTER PARABLE. 

PAGE 

" Consider the.lilies."—S. Matthew vi. 28, 123 

Preached in Muscatine, Easter Day, 1891. 

XVII. A PRESENT HOPE. 

" Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of 
man, the things xohich God hath prepared for them that love Him. But 
God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit."—! Cor. ii. 9, 10, . . 130 

Preached at Extern, Hampshire, England, and S. John's 
Church, Montreal. 

XVIII. THE BLESSEDNESS OF GIVING. 
" It is more blessed to give than to receive.'''' — Acts xx. 35, 139 
. Preached in Dorchester Abbey and Christ Church, Bur- 
lington, Iowa. 

XIX. HOLINESS. 
" Holiness becometh Thine house forever.''''— Psalm xciii. 6, . . . 148 
Preached in Muscatine, Fourth Sunday after Easter, 1892. 

XX. FREE THOUGHT. 
" Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty."— 2 Cor. m. 17, . 155 
Preached in Muscatine, Trinity Sunday, 1888. 

XXI. CREATION'S EXPECTANCY. 

" The earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation 
of the Sons of God.' 1 ' 1 — Romans viii. 19, 162 

Preached in Dorchester Abbey, Fourth Sunday after 
Trinity, 1882, and in the Parish Church, Alverstoke, 1895. 



CONTENTS. xiii 
XXII. THE CHURCH AND HER CHILDREN. 

PAGE 

" Thine eyes did see my substance yet being imperfect, and in Thy Book 
were all my members written, which day by day were fashioned, when as 



yet there was none of them.' 1 ''— Psalm cxxxix. 15, 16, 



170 



Preached at Dedication Festival of Holy Cross, Keokuk, 
Iowa, 1889, and at Holt, Dorset, England. 

XXIII. SEEKING JESUS. 
"He sought to see Jesus who He was.' 1 ' 1 — S. Luke xix. 3, ... 179 

Preached in Muscatine, Nineteenth Sunday after Trinity, 
1886, and at Broadstairs, Kent, England. 

XXIV. THE MYSTERY OF LIFE. 

11 So is the Kingdom of God as if a man should cast seed into the ground ; 
and should sleep, and rise night and day, and the seed should spring and 
grow up, he knoweth not how.^—S. Mark iv. 26, 27, 186 

Preached on Harvest Festival in Christ Church, Ealing, 
Middlesex, 1880. 

XXV. THE MEMORY OF THE JUST. 
" The righteous shall be had in everlasting remembrance.'''' — Psalm 



Preached in Muscatine, Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity, 
1888. 



195 



XXVI. THE WORSHIP OF THE CHURCH MILITANT. 

" We have an Altar."— Heb. xiii. 10, . 201 

Preached in Muscatine. 



xiv 



CONTENTS. 



XXVII. THE WORSHIP OF THE CHURCH 
TRIUMPHANT. 

PAGE 

" After this Ibeheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no one could num- 
ber, . . . stood before the Throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with 
white robes, and palms in their hands ; and cried with a loud -voice, Salva- 
tion to our God which sitteth upon the Throne, and unto the Lamb.' 1 '' — Rev. 
vii. 9, 10, 208 

Preached at Muscatine, Sunday in the Octave of All 
Saints, 1894. 



I. 



SILENCE. 

"And when He had opened the seventh seal there 
was silence in Heaven about the space of half an 
hour." 

— Rev. viii. 1. 

S. John from his lonely watch in Patmos beheld. m 
the spirit the visions of the Kevelation. With won- 
der and awe had he seen the Book of Divine Counsel 
with seven seals, which no man was found worthy 
to open, taken by the Eternal Lamb of God, who 
alone was " found worthy to loose the seals thereof." 
Mystery after mystery had been then disclosed, and 
after the opening of the sixth seal, he beheld the mul- 
titude of the redeemed "clothed in white robes and 
with palms in their hands," and his ear caught the 
loud outburst of their joyous song " salvation to our 
God that sitteth upon the Throne and unto the Lamb." 
The Angel Choir round the Throne, with the Patri- 
archs and Living Creatures, joined in that great 
act of worship, and made Heaven ring with that 
Hallelujah Chorus. And now the echoes of the jubi- 



2 



SILENCE. 



lant hymn have died away, and, as he gazes upon 
the opening of the seventh seal, " there was silence in 
Heaven for the space of half an hour " — the hush of 
an awful anticipation, while the seven angels were 
preparing to sound the trumpets of Divine Purpose. 

Brethren, I am not here to discuss one or more of 
the interpretations of this mystic chapter, but I shall 
strive to dwell upon a truth herein disclosed which we 
may with profit consider. There are so many great 
thoughts and deep lessons connected with Advent that 
it is not easy to select one. We may rightly think of 
the first Advent in humility, of the second Advent in 
glory, of the particular Advent by which Christ Jesus 
comes and knocks at the door of every heart. But, if 
we are to enter upon and use this new Christian year 
with profit, we must have " the right Spirit within us." 
As we look round the Christian world to-day, and ask 
what it seems to lack most in order to fit it to wel- 
come the coming of the Saviour, may we not say it is 
the gift of that heavenly space of " silence for about 
half an hour " ? The very air is white with the whirl- 
ing leaves of books, pamphlets, papers, tracts; the 
very ear-drum dulled by the babel of sounds which go 
up from the arena of religious declamation or contro- 
versy ; so that the trembling, spiritually minded, ear- 
nest soul is tempted to cry out with the Psalmist, 



SILENCE. 



3 



" keep me secretly by thine own Presence from the 
strife of tongues." 

" There was silence in Heaven about the space of 
half an hour." 

Let us apply this thought of silence in Heaven to 
silence on earth, and; see how it may help us to prepare 
to meet our God. 

1. Silence within and without is the condition of 
true, intelligent, receptive listening. 

If we are to listen with ease and with a retentive 
heart, one of the essential conditions is freedom from 
outward disturbance, and this in proportion to the 
depth and grandeur of what is heard. We are seated 
in a concert-hall listening to delicate and superb strains 
of some work of musical genius, when lo ! we discover 
that our neighbours immediately behind us or in front 
have apparently patronized the concert out of a sense 
of duty, and are now indemnifying themselves by very 
audible conversation, whispered it may be, yet fully as 
disquieting to the nerves of an appreciative listener as 
a stentorian shout. Our pleasure is spoiled, our enjov- 
ment of the music is marred, and we are robbed of 
half the value of the anticipated delight from lack of 
Silence. So again Silence must be the inward accom- 
paniment of true hearing. Mark the concentrated 
attention and absolute silence of the student who is 



4 



SILENCE. 



straining to hear and remember the words of some 
learned lecturer. Note the silence as some piece of 
vital evidence, which may tell for life or death, is be- 
ing given in a court of law — you might hear a pin 
drop ! Contrast the stillness and motionless attitude 
of the lover of music with the restless movements and 
whispered comments of the frivolous habituee, and we 
see how the really listening ear implies Silence. 

" Hear O Heavens and give ear O earth," cries 
Isaiah, " for the Lord hath spoken." He hath spoken 
indeed, brethren, "spoken unto us by His Son." Nay, 
He still speaks through His mouthpiece to men in 
these days. He calls to each one, for each He has 
the Message of Life, of Hope, of Guidance, of Wis- 
dom ; the message full enough to fill the Heavens and 
the earth, yet gentle and direct enough to reach the 
ear of the young child. 

Through the Book of Nature and through the 
Church God still speaks. How shall we listen ? If we 
are to keep the Divine Lessons in our hearts, if we are 
to write them indelibly in our minds, we must say 
" Speak, Lord, for Thy servant heareth," and there 
must be silence in our hearts, that the " still small 
voice" may not be drowned by the outcries of the 
world, or misinterpreted in the volubility of our own 
garrulous surmisings. 



SILENCE. 



5 



2. Silence, too, is a necessary condition of true con- 
templation, of deep purposeful thought. It is related 
of the poet Whittier that when his mind was at work 
upon some original conception, knowing the frailty 
and delicacy of such a train of thought, and how 
easily it may be broken and lost, he would break 
from his accustomed habit of genial courtesy, and 
pass by even a well-known acquaintance in silence. 

Are we, under pressure of the nineteenth century 
system of education, which clamours for smartness 
and readiness, and confidence of statement, (even in 
the young where our ancestors required modesty, 
deference, and silence,) are we in danger of losing 
the power of thinking f 

One is struck sometimes in conversation to meet 
positive expressions of opinion, or statements of fact, 
where, if one takes the trouble to press the matter 
home, there seems an incapacity for real grasp of the 
matter in hand or of the weight of argument. 

How common is the expression, " You may tell me 
this but I don't think so." You ask, why, and you 
prick the poor bubble, and discover that there has 
been no thought or reasoning at all, only a glib and 
parrot-like repetition of some sentiment read or over- 
heard. 

With our conventions and convocations and con- 



c 



SILENCE. 



gresses — political, scientific, religious ; our guild meet- 
ings, club meetings, and lectures, there seems to be left 
no time for thought, no time to digest what has been 
said or to translate it into action ; no time, for the plat- 
form is thronged again. If there could be a cessation 
for one year : no more books, no more speeches, no 
more advertisements, shall I say no more sermons ? — 
for one whole year of golden silence to think over 
what has been written and spoken, to winnow out the 
chaff, to digest and act upon the divinely true, would 
it not be a relief, an enrichment to life ? Only, I fear, 
by the end of that space of silence we should have 
learned to find it so lovely, soothing, and elevating 
that we should be ready to impose a forfeit upon the 
first whose voice broke the stillness, and threatened 
to arouse the old babel of voices ! 

If the angel could say to the world, ay even the 
religious world, " You must cease for a while your bab- 
bling, your, ' I think this,' and 6 do not think that,' 
your opinions of a day, that are the very froth upon 
the river of time, and you must be dumb, 'not 
speaking for a season,' because of your lack of faith," 
it would surely be as great a blessing to us as it was 
to Zachariah. Those mute moments hindered him 
from talking foolish nothings, and consigned him to the 
guardianship of gentle Silence, the mother of thought. 



SILENCE. 



7 



" Mary kept all these sayings and pondered them 
in her heart." Would that Christian souls would fol- 
low her example. The good old practice of reading- 
and meditating upon a few verses of Holy Scripture 
is now so little followed that the faculty of continuous 
devout thought is sadly weakened. It has been well 
observed that people in the present day like to have 
their thinking done for them, from dislike of the 
trouble involved. Hence, among other things, the 
cry for short and interesting sermons on popular topics 
w^hich shall voice the preconceived ideas of the hear- 
ers. Hence the not unnatural indignation with the 
setting forth of any Church doctrine which may run 
counter to popularly received notions, for this shakes 
the unfortunate listener out of the luxurious repose of 
contented endorsement, into the disquieting effort to 
think out the new topic on its own merits. 

Too often the easier and more popular course is to 
cry, '' That cannot be true, because I have never 
thought so." 

To listen, then, to the still small voice of the 
Spirit in reverent awe, to ponder the teachings of 
the Church in our heart, in the silence of our cham- 
bers and be still, w T ould seem to be essential steps to a 
real hearing and understanding what " the will of the 
Lord is." 



8 



SILENCE. 



3. Silence, again, is in many instances the condition 
and character of the strongest and deepest emotion 
and action. " Still waters run deep," says the proverb. 
I was told by a man who remembered hearing one of 
the first locomotives invented by Stevenson, that you 
could hear its snorting for miles away. The mighty 
eighty-ton engines that will whirl along vast trains afc 
sixty miles an hour run smoothly, easily, and with com- 
paratively very slight sound. The deepest and strongest 
natures are commonly the most silent : the deepest 
emotions and purposes are those which affect us at 
times when we have gone aside from the noise and 
dust of work. Our Blessed Lord prepared for His 
ministry in the wilderness, for His cross in Gethsem- 
ane. Our worship is the converse of the soul with 
its Maker and Saviour, the lifting up of the heart in 
adoration and praise, the intercession for souls, the re- 
newed dedication of ourselves to the Lord's service in 
the Lord's house. What acts can be more deep, more 
solemn, more real ? 

" The Lord is in His Holy Temple, let all the earth 
keep silence before Him." "Be silent O all flesh be- 
fore the Lord," says Zechariah (ii. 13). It would, my 
friends, be a real help in cultivating within ourselves 
this spirit of recollected devotion, and religious pur- 
pose, if we would strive to make times of worship in 



SILENCE. 



9 



God's house like that heavenly space of silence. I 
mean of silent concentrated effort on our own part to 
attain a spirit of sincere prayer and devotion. I have 
seen with pleasure that some now occupy the time 
before service in prayer, or in reading the Prayer- 
book or Hymnal. Much more might be done in the 
way of putting off conversation until after we have left 
the church, and ending it as we pass the sacred thresh- 
old. The good old church practice of kneeling at 
once when we enter our seat, and praying for a spirit 
of devotion, and a blessing upon the service, should 
never be omitted. 

There may be said to be three stages of religious 
education. The elementary, or handshaking stage, 
when the church is regarded as a social club and 
people stay away because they are not welcomed by 
the clergymen every Sunday and invited by the 
church families to all the social entertainments. 

Second comes the sermon stage. In this people call 
the clergyman " the preacher," and regard the sermon 
as practically the onkv reason for attending church. 
The Rev. W. E. Heygate well says, in one of his ad- 
dresses to candidates for Holy Orders, " I would pro- 
test against the multiplication of sermons. The reli- 
gion of England, [may we not say of America too ?] is 
a religion of hearing not of worship." He goes on to 



10 



SILENCE. 



express the wish that one sermon a week in ordinary 
seasons were the rule, with special courses in Advent 
and Lent. The third stage, however, is the stage of 
devout Christian worship when people go to church 
as naturally as they sit down to their daily meals, 
because it is a real part of their life and they would 
not be well or happy without doing so. 

And now for simple practical but valuable sugges- 
tions let me exhort you — 

1. Never to fail to kneel down on entering your 
place in church and say the Tenth Collect after Trinity, 
and such other prayers as you desire — striving to accus- 
tom yourself to remain on your knees in private prayer. 

2. To keep a Bible in your seats and follow the 
lessons in it. This will give you a more intelligent 
interest in what is read. 

3. To find the Psalms for the day before service 
begins and read them through if you have time. 

4. To use a manual of devotion when you come 
to the Holy Communion. I can recommend the 
" Muscatine " manual recently published by the Young 
Churchman Co. These books are intended not for a 
mere reading over but for habitual use, and we should 
use them in our preparation and bring them with us 
for the service. 

It is a sign, I trust, that the spirit of true religion is 



SILENCE. 



11 



growing that many of you love to join in the church 
service on Friday evenings, and daily in Lent, when 
there is no sermon. It is one of the blessings of our 
Three Hours Good Friday service, with its pauses for 
silent prayer and thought, that it does help to train 
the soul in habits of independent devotion, in acts of 
prayer and meditation, which it can carry on in silence 
by itself, without depending on the priest to pray for 
it, or the preacher to exhort it. 

To sum up then, dear friends, these hints on golden 
silence. That we may hear reverently, that we may 
ponder God's words in our hearts, that our religious 
life of prayer and action may be deep and strong, let 
us guard the precious silence of God's house, and keep 
at least, some time of daily retirement for prayer and 
thought at home. 



II. 



" THE INTERPRETER OF HOLY SCRIPTURE." 

" And Philip ran thither to him and heard him read 
the Prophet Isaiah, and said ' understandest thou what 
thou readest ;' and he said ' how can I except some 
man should guide me ? ' Then Philip . . . began at 
the same Scripture and preached unto him Jesus." 

—Acts viii. Parts of 30, 31, 35. 

S. Paul in the Epistle for to-day defines the object 
for which Holy Scripture was given to be that through 
it we might possess and hold fast " the Hope," that is 
the belief in Jesus Christ as the Son of God, the 
Saviour of the World. S. Paul was writing primarily 
to his own people, the Jews; and the Scriptures to 
which he referred were of course the Old Testa- 
ment books. From the reading of those Scriptures 
in the synagogues every Sabbath day the fire of 
hope in the Messiah to come had been fed and fanned. 
The same truth, he urges, now holds good of con- 
verts to Christianity; the Scriptures are God's 
instrument for strengthening and encouraging their 
belief and hope. Then, in most significant tones, he 
goes on to pray that God may make them unanimous 



" THE INTERPRETER OF HOLY SCRIPTURE." 13 

iD their Christian belief and practice, so that " with one 
mind and one mouth they may glorify God, even the 
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ." This was to be the 
outcome of the reading and learning of the Script- 
ures, a unanimous confession of faith, a unanimity of 
mind and heart. The Christian Church, embracing 
in her Canon the Old Testament and her own sup- 
plement, the New, applies the Apostle's words to the 
Bible and gives them to us as her authoritative teach- 
ing on this Bible Sunday. 

The Old Testament was to maintain and cherish 
the hope of ancient Israel, the entire Scriptures are to 
do the same office for the spiritual Israel, the Church 
of Christ throughout the world. 

The Apostolic purpose and prayer was, that from the 
studj^ and hearing of Holy Scriptures Christians might 
be one in their thoughts, one in their confession of 
faith, one in their hearts, taking one another by the 
hand in unity of mind, mouth, and heart, to the glory 
of God. 

S. Paul then, and the Church since, regards the Holy 
Scriptures as an organ of vast and varied power, 
designed to yield rich music. This organ is to accom- 
pany, to bear up, to supplement the Living Voice of 
the Choir, to blend all notes into a strong, sweet har- 
mony in the Household of Faith. That this Apostolic 



14 "THE INTERPRETER OF HOLY SCRIPTURE." 

use of the Bible was not universally followed, that 
" men were not of one mind in the House," that the 
Scriptures, instead of being the spring of harmony, 
have too often seemed to cause and augment discord 
is unhappily an indisputable fact. 

" Even the devil can quote Scripture " is but a vulgar 
expression of the well-known historical fact that the 
most extravagant and mischievous delusions of ignor- 
ant or fanatical theorists have been bolstered up by quo- 
tations from the Scriptures. This brings us directly 
to the point which should be understood at the outset, 
viz.: that there is a right and a wrong use of the Bible, 
a true and a mistaken conception of what Holy 
Scripture and its uses are. The wrong view and use 
has made Holy Scripture an instrument of despair 
and discord. The right view and use of it has made 
it the minister of hope and harmony. 

The mistaken view is that the Old Testament or 
'New Testament were ever intended by Almighty 
God to be put into the hands of any uninstructed 
person, in order that he or she, by their own mere 
reading and thought, unassisted by the guidance of 
God's own interpreter, might find out all truth for 
themselves. This error, existing even in Apostolic 
times, gained a wide popularity among the wilder 
spirits of the Eeformation era, when " the Bible only," 



"THE INTERPRETER OF HOLY SCRIPTURE:'' 15 

and " Private judgment" became watchwords of con- 
troversy. The source of this error may be traced to a 
misunderstanding of our Lord's promise: " The Holy 
Spirit shall guide you into all truth," which He ad- 
dressed to the College of Apostles, and the body of 
the faithful. This has been construed as a promise 
that any individual shall infallibly, by searching, 
thought, and prayer, discover all doctrinal truth ; a 
position which would be as unwarranted in reason as it 
has been proved false in fact. It is as if the reason- 
able belief that the American Nation, through its qual- 
ified and authorized courts, will always interpret the 
laws and constitution according to their original true 
meaning and intent, were taken to imply that any citi- 
zen, educated or not, with or without legal training, 
might consider himself as rightful and competent a 
judge of the constitution and laws, and interpret them 
for himself as infallibly and authoritatively as the 
Supreme Court of the United States ! The result of 
such action would be legal and judicial chaos; the 
result of the same folly as regards the Scriptures has 
been heresy, schism, and woeful waste of power. 

This abuse of Scripture is expressly condemned by 
the Apostles. When S. Paul is rebuking the divisions 
among the Corinthians he denounces this individual 
attempt to use the Holy Scripture as a private weapon. 



16 11 THE INTERPRETER OF HOLY SCRIPTURE:* 

" When ye come together," he says severely, " every- 
one of you hath a Psalm, hath a doctrine, hath a 
tongue, hath a revelation, hath an interpretation. 
Let all things be done unto edifying."— 1 Cor. xiv. 
Just as emphatically does S. Peter denounce the 
attempt to make private judgment in Holy Scripture 
a standard of doctrine. " No prophecy of the Script- 
ure," he says, "is of any private interpretation." — 
2 Pet. i. 20. 

And, again, most clearly and to the point is his remark 
about S. Paul's epistles " in which are some things hard 
to be understood, which they that are unlearned and 
unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, 
unto their own destruction." 2 Pet. iii. 16. 

Had this apostolic rebuke been remembered, how 
many heartburning controversies, how many unsound 
and mischievous theories, would have been spared to 
the world ! 

What then is the right view and reasonable practice ? 
It is the simple historical view, which was held in Israel 
of the Old Testament, and in the Christian Church of 
the New Testament, that the Scriptures are the sacred 
books of the Divine society, and are meant, not for 
primary instruction, but for witnesses and tests of the 
truth of the doctrines taught. 

" The books of the New Testament " says a leading 



"THE INTERPRETER OF HOLY SCRIPTURE." 17 

theologian of our communion, " bear upon the face of 
them the evidence that they were not intended for 
primary instruction. They were addressed to men who 
were already Christians, and had received oral instruc- 
tion in the fundamental doctrines. It is a matter of his- 
torical fact, that Christian teaching was not at first 
written clown, but was committed to the Church to hold 
and teach as a rule of faith." From that day to this the 
living Church has been in the world teaching the 
Christian faith. The Bible has been in the Church as 
her proof, witness, and test, as to the fidelity of her 
teaching. " The Church to teach, the Bible to prove " 
says the above writer, " has been generally recognized 
as the Anglican view, as it unquestionably is the 
view of the ancient Church." Hence, while for de- 
votional reading, moral and spiritual comfort and edi- 
fication, the Holy Scriptures are given as an inexhaust- 
ible well to the very humblest and least learned of 
the faithful and devout disciples of Christ, it is an 
entire and fatal misuse to regard them as intended, 
(apart from the continuous guidance of the living 
Church, the divinely appointed interpreter,) to teach 
individuals the Christian faith. The Eunuch's cry 
as he read Isaiah: "How can I understand except 
some man guide me ? " is the natural expression of an 
average humble-minded reader. And Philip, sent by 



18 "THE INTERPRETER OF HOLY SCRIPTURE." 

God directly as the interpreter, " to preach from the 
same Scripture Jesus," does not act as a mere man 
giving his opinion of the passage and its meaning : he 
acts as a mouthpiece, an authorized representative of 
the teaching Church of Christ, God's own appointed 
guardian and interpreter of Holy Writ. Philip taught 
just as Paul or Peter or John or Titus would have 
taught. " The Creeds, then, in the view of the ancient 
Church, are simply summaries of the original Christian 
faith, as it is set forth in Scripture. They are the 
summaries and guides, which are necessary as a key 
to the study of the Scriptures, and which always refer 
us back to the Scriptures for proof." 

The Church of Christ has never encouraged the 
magical or superstitious use of the Scriptures, as if the 
mere distribution of so many copies, among ignorant, 
unbelieving, or even heathen people, must work some 
charm, and lead men to Divine Truth. Too often she 
knows that an ignorant or perverted use of Holy 
Scripture, by the uninstructed, fanatical, or sensual, 
has been made the pretext to excuse schism and un- 
belief ; the fierce bloodsheddings of fanatics, or the 
fantastic imbecilities of dreamers. 

And now that the world has the Bible, and its 
God-appointed interpreter, the living Church, her 
creeds and formularies, is it not strange that men will 



"THE INTERPRETER OE HOLY SCRIPTURE:' 19 

still take to themselves guides, dreamers, self-consti- 
tuted interpreters, who are veritably blind leaders of 
the blind ? Yet so the Apostles foretold : " There 
shall come false teachers and false prophets." So in 
every age it has been. And while each age laughs at 
the crank and the craze of its grandfather's days, it 
runs with itching ears to its own pet novelist, lecturer, 
prophet ! 

Meanwhile the Teaching Church, like her Lord, 
the same yesterday, to-day, and forever, holds the 
Bible in her hand, and cries "Come ye children, 
hearken unto me, I will teach you the fear of the 
Lord. You do not understand what you read, come 
to me. Come, and from it I will preach unto you 
Jesus, and the truth as it is in Him." Look back and 
see how men have misused the Bible ! In every age 
there have been false teachers, false guides, who 
have left Christ's teaching, and led multitudes into 
error — Simon Magus, Arius, the Nicolaitans, Zwingle, 
Calvin, Knox, Bohler. They had their day, they 
founded systems, they distorted the Gospel, but men 
have found them out ! The world is coming back to 
realize that the Church's old teaching is the truth. 
Will men abide in truth ? Alas the specious theorist, 
clever writer, glib orator, comes forward with his 
theory of Christianity, " preaching another doctrine " 



20 "THE INTERPRETER OF HOLY SCRIPTURE." 

(false teachers they will be proved and foolish in a 
short time), but meanwhile, as S. Peter foresaw, 
" many shall follow their pernicious ways." 

Let us not ignore the harm that has been done by 
this misguided use of the Scriptures. It has been the 
fruitful parent of heresies and divisions in the past. It 
has led many, and still leads many, into sadly maimed 
and distorted views of the Christian faith and life. 
This rejection of the God-appointed guide and inter- 
preter, leaves us a prey to the self-constituted tribunal 
of our own judgment, or the conflicting specula- 
tions of blind guides. This has been the most potent 
foe to the fulfilment of S. Paul's prayer that Chris- 
tians " might with one mind and mouth glorify God." 
True, we do not now fight and persecute, but think 
of the fearful loss of power entailed by division and 
guesswork, where there might be unity and confi- 
dence. See a nation which is split up into little fac- 
tions, like Germany was at the beginning of this cen- 
tury. Each little town or state with its own petty 
aims, its own government, king, theatre and politics. 
The state was at the mercy of Napoleon I. See the 
same Germany, thrilled with one common love of 
Fatherland, leaping to arms as one man with one 
common aim. She is irresistible ! 

The disciples of the One Lord might to-day in unity 



"THE INTERPRETER OF HOLY SCRIPTURE." 21 

and unanimity convert the world, be such a force for 
good, for purity, honesty, and soberness, that the 
powers of darkness would not prevail against them. 
4 How much of Christ's own evangelizing power is dis- 
sipated through the friction of unhappy divisions! 
And what is more responsible for these than the fact 
that men, as they ride in the chariot of life, and read 
the Books of Nature and Grace, will not invite the 
divinely-appointed interpreter to mount beside them, 
and humbly say, " How can I understand except thou 
guide me? I desire to learn, not what is this opinion, 
or that, but what does the One Catholic and Apos- 
tolic Church of Christ, the Pillar and Ground of the 
Truth teach me of Jesus and His faith." 

To sum up the matter practically, if perplexed or in 
doubt about the teaching of Holy Scripture, or any 
point of religious discussion, let us ask the question, 
not " what do I think, or what do you think," but 
" what is the authoritative interpretation of the living 
Church of Christ?" 



III. 



THE VOCATION TO THE PKIESTHOOD. 

"No man taketh this honour unto himself but he 
that is called of God as was Aaron." 

— Heb. v. 4. 

Brethren : — In the first Paradise of Eden we read 
of no Temple and no chosen Church, for sin had not 
yet introduced discord. The whole earth was the 
Temple of the Lord, and every creature a true wor- 
shipper. So in that great " Day of the Lord " when 
He shall " make all things new," the Apostle of love 
writes — " I saw no Temple therein, for the Lord 
God Almighty and the Lamb are the Temple of it." 

But between these two Gardens of innocence and 
purity, the Garden of Eden and the Garden of the 
" new Heavens and Earth," a different order is 
necessary. 

If, in some lovely scene of peaceful beauty, the 
whole earth for a moment seems transformed into 
a glorious temple, to maintain the illusion we must 
banish or ignore the intruding fact of sin. 

Where rampant and insolent crime lifts its voice, 



THE VOCATION TO THE PRIESTHOOD. 23 

the fancy is broken, the harmonies of Heaven are 
interrupted, as if a saloon of blasphemers were turned 
loose into a church, to mingle their foul and infernal 
clamour with the Te Deums of a devout congrega- 
tion ! 

In self-defence the pure waters of righteousness 
must be gathered into a reservoir, to guard them 
from loathsome infiltrations. Therefore it was that 
Jehovah called Abraham to found a holy, separated, 
nation, the Hebrew Church, to be the shrine of true 
religion and virtue in the midst of a corrupt world. 
Therefore it was, also, that Christ called His Apostles 
to found a worldwide, or Catholic, Church, which 
should be to the whole earth what Israel had been to 
a portion, the salt of preservation, the light of guid- 
ance, the guardian of Truth, and the mother of 
holiness. 

As into the commonwealth of Israel children and 
foreigners were admitted by the rite of circumcision, 
and became thereby heirs of "the promises made 
unto the fathers," so Christ our Lord ordained that 
infants, and those who had grown up outside His 
Kingdom, should be incorporated into it by the Sacra- 
ment of Holy Baptism, with its complementary Kite 
of Confirmation, and be made thereby " heirs of the 
Kingdom of Heaven." 



24 THE VOCATION TO THE PRIESTHOOD. 

There is, then, much which is most instructive in 
the parallel, which is drawn in the Epistle to the 
Hebrews, between the Temple and Priesthood of 
the Jews, and the new Temple and Priesthood 
of Jesus Christ. The nation of Israel was called of 
God to stand in the midst of the world as " a King- 
dom of Priests" (Exodus xix. 6). While other 
peoples were running after idols, Israel was to pro- 
claim " Thou shalt worship the Lord Thy God, and 
Him only shalt thou serve." While the world was 
devoted to the worship of mammon, or the indul- 
gence of self, the Jews, as the Priests of the race, 
w T ere to offer up humble acknowledgments of sin, 
pure and sweet Sacrifices of praise, to the Creator of 
all. What does the New Testament teach us with 
regard to the character and responsibility of all 
Christians, members of the Universal Church of 
Christ ? " If ye were of the world," says our Lord, 
"the world would love its own, but because ye are 
not of the world, and I have chosen you out of the 
world, therefore the world hateth you." And again 
— " Ye are," cries S. Peter writing to the Church at 
large, "a chosen generation, a royal Priesthood, a 
holy nation, a peculiar people." Never forget, clear 
Brothers and Sisters of the Laity, the honour of your 
Christian Birthright, you who have been born in the 



THE VOCATION TO THE PRIESTHOOD. 25 



royal purple of the Christian inheritance at Holy 
Baptism, and sealed with laying on of the Bishop's 
hands in Confirmation, are a "royal Priesthood." 
And this Priesthood of the laity, like that of the 
nation of Israel, lays upon you the responsibilities as 
well as the privilege of spiritual authority. 

"No man taketh this honour unto himself." No 
man can make himself a Christian, any more than he 
can, of his own volition, come into the world ; the 
infant must be brought in the Church's arms, the 
adult feel the call of God's Holy Spirit, and receive 
the ordination to that Royal Priesthood, the Sacra- 
ment of Holy Baptism with the seal of Confirma- 
tion. 

Now within the circumference of the Jewish nation, 
a tribe and family were called by Jehovah to a special 
Priesthood ; the tribe of Levi, the family of Aaron. 
Formerly the functions of a sacred nature, the offering 
of Sacrifice, and the giving of solemn Benediction, 
were discharged by the Patriarchs as heads of house- 
holds; as we find Job offering up Sacrifices and 
prayers for his children, and Abraham and Jacob 
each acting in the same priestly capacity. But in 
the more definite organization at Sinai, the Almighty 
willed to call the tribe of Levi to discharge the offices 
of all the first-born, and out of this tribe the family 



26 THE VOCATION TO THE PRIESTHOOD. 



of Aaron to perform the priestly functions of offering 
Sacrifice, teaching and blessing the people. 

"Within the world-wide circle of the Christian Priest- 
hood of all the Baptized, the same all Wise and all 
Holy Lord was pleased to call a band of men to 
special priestly duties, responsibilities, and authority, 
that they might represent their brethren in pleading 
before God, and, on His behalf, teach, absolve, and 
bless. 

"His twelre Apostles first He made His ministers of grace 
And they their hands on others laid to fill in turn their place." 

And of the orders of this sacred and special Priest- 
hood it is true as of that of the laity, "No man 
taketh this honour upon himself but he that is called 
of God as was Aaron." 

The calling, the vocation, must be from God ; there 
must be the humble but sincere conviction that we 
have heard the inner whisper calling us to the Sacred 
Office, if we are to look for any blessing, any joy, nay 
even any safety, in this most high yet most awful life. 
" Do you think in your heart, that you are truly called, 
according to the will of our Lord Jesus Christ, and 
the order of this Church, to the order and ministry of 
the Priesthood ? " asks the Bishop solemnly, and the 
candidate must reply " I think it." 

So too must the ordination be from God, in His 



THE VOCATION TO THE PRIESTHOOD. 27 



own appointed way. In the eighth chapter of Levit- 
icus, we find the order which Jehovah instituted for 
ordination to the Old Testament Priesthood, and in 
the New we find our Lord solemnly ordaining His 
Apostles, by breathing upon them with the tremen- 
dous form of words, " Receive ye the Holy Ghost, 
whosoever sins } T e remit they are remitted unto 
them," with the commission to Teach and Baptize, 
given in the last chapter of S. Matthew's Gospel, and 
" as my Father hath sent Me even so send I you." 
In the Acts of the Apostles, and in the Epistles, we 
find numerous instances of ordination by laying on 
of the Apostles' hands to the sacred ministry, and 
reference to the sacred character thereby conferred. 

If we examine the parallel between the Jewish and 
the Christian ministry, we find it especially instructive 
in two points. 

In the Levitical Priesthood there was a threefold 
order instituted by divine command, the Levites, the 
Priests, the High Priest. There is, then, certainly a 
presumption that the three Orders which have existed 
from the beginning in the Christian ministry — Deacon, 
Priest, and Bishop — were, in like manner, ordained by 
Christ Himself, and are according to the mind and 
will of God. 

Then, again, an answer to the question what is 



28 THE VOCATION TO THE PRIESTHOOD. 



the relation of the laity to the Priesthood, and of 
both to Christ the Head of the Church, may be found 
in the Temple with its threefold division. Within 
the Holiest of Holies the High Priest alone might 
enter, type of Christ, our great High Priest in Heaven, 
as the Lamb slain, offering His eternal intercession. 
"Within the Holy Place, and before the Golden Altar, 
only the Priests may minister, representatives and 
agents of the one High Priest. And in the court of 
the people stands the Brazen Altar, before which 
all may worship. All have somewhat to offer, but 
the offerings of people and Priest, each in their 
respective place, are acceptable, only if offered in 
union with the one Perfect Sacrifice, if passed on 
to the hands of the great High Priest, if offered 
" through Jesus Christ our Lord." You stand within 
the one Temple of the Church of Christ; none can 
interfere with, or may be substituted for, the offering 
or the work of another. The offering of a free heart, 
a living and reasonable service, is common to all. 

The offering of public prayer, and especially of the 
Holy Eucharist, is the function alone of the ordained 
priesthood. 

The presentation of the Eternal Sacrifice as a pre- 
vailing intercession, is the work of our Great High 
Priest in the Heavens, from whose Head flows down 



THE VOCATION TO THE PRIESTHOOD. 29 

perpetually the unction of grace to the very " Skirts of 
His clothing" on earth. 

My brother, for you the veil of the Holy Place is 
about to be raised, and, through the authoritative 
imposition of the Bishop's hands, you will receive the 
gift of the Priesthood, and be empowered to stand 
before the Christian Altar, and offer prayers and Eu- 
charists for the Church of God, while, on God's be- 
half, you turn to Bless and Absolve the people in His 
Name. 

As a deacon you have served well and now " the 
good degree " is before you. 

This will be in part your responsibility. 

To teach loyally the Scriptural faith of the Church. 

To minister the doctrine, discipline and sacraments 
of the Church as a good steward of the mysteries of 
God. 

To set a good example to the people committed to 
your charge, while you strive to conform your life and 
theirs to the pattern Life of the Son of God. 

The relation of Priest and people is one of the most 
beautiful in the world, and is well illustrated in Holy 
Scripture by the simile of shepherd and flock. 

The joys and the sorrows of the people are yours, 
my brother ; intercede for them, feel for them, feed 
them with the Bread of Life. 



30 THE VOCATION TO THE PRIESTHOOD. 



Brethren, he is your Priest, your friend, your 
brother ; comfort him, love him, pray for him in his 
most responsible office. 

Who is sufficient, my brother, for the Priest's life 
and his tremendous duties : how shall we dare to face 
the question that must one day come from the lips of 
the Chief Shepherd, " where is the flock that I gave 
thee, my beautiful flock"? 

Remember for consolation and encouragement, that 
the gift to be given you in the Laying on of Hands is 
not merely one of authority but one of power. " Ye 
shall be endued with power from on high." "As 
thy day so shall thy strength be." Members of your 
flock will straj T , but you will patiently seek them, 
troubles will come, but you will bear them, " in quiet- 
ness and confidence shall be your strength." 

Then when our Great High Priest, who is the Chief 
Shepherd, shall appear, standing at the entrance of the 
green pastures of the fold of the Blessed, may you lead 
your flock forth there, beside the still waters of com- 
fort, not one lamb missing from its place, and humbly 
and gratefully say " Of them whom Thou gavest me 
I have lost none." 



IY. 

THE KING AKD THE KINGDOM. 

" Thine eyes shall see the King in His beauty, they 
shall behold the land, that is very far off." 

— Isaiah xxxiii. 17. 

The musical English of our text scarcely renders the 
exact sense of the original, and in quoting it through- 
out this sermon I shall venture to adopt Matthew Ar- 
nold's suggested version — "Thine eyes shall see the 
King in His beauty ? they shall behold the land 
spreading very far forth." 

This chapter of the prophecy was probably written 
about the twenty-fifth year of Hezekiah, 701 b. a, that 
terrible year when, as inscriptions tell us, Sennacherib 
invaded Judah. The first six verses give a brief 
sketch of the destruction and overthrow of the Assyr- 
ian host and the triumph of the Lord and His people. 
Then Isaiah enters into detail and paints, from verses 
7 to 9, the fear and desolation of Judah and Israel, 
Lebanon, Sharon and Carmel, together with the rising 
up of Jehovah to punish the Assyrian invader. " A 



32 



THE KING AND THE KINGDOM. 



breath as fire shall devour you, the people (of Sen- 
nacherib) shall be as the burnings of lime, as thorns 
cut up shall they be burned in the fire." Yerse 14 de- 
clares the terror of the ungodly at this manifestation 
of the power and wrath of the Almighty. " Oh who 
among us shall dwell with the devouring fire, who 
with everlasting burnings ? " To this cry the prophet 
gives answer in the following verse, by a portrait of 
the good man who shall safely endure. He shall be 
safe while the fire consumes the enemy in the plains 
below, for he shall dwell on high, fortified on a rock, 
" bread shall be given unto him ; his water shall be 
sure." Then, when the Lord's deliverance is consum- 
mated, when the remnants of the host of Sennacherib 
have retreated to Armenia, the good King Hezekiah 
will be found reigning in peace over his freed and en- 
larged dominions : " thine eyes shall see the King in 
His beauty, they shall behold the land spreading very 
far forth." 

Now, dear friends, why do we read this prophecy 
of the victory of Jehovah and the hope of the right- 
eous at this season? Surely because it prefigures that 
other and greater deliverance of His People from 
spiritual foes, which was begun when God, the 
Eternal Son, came down from Heaven "and was 
made Man " on that first Christmas Day, that, as Man, 



THE KING AND THE KINGDOM. 



33 



He might lead His people to a victorious encounter 
with evil ; a deliverance which shall be perfected in 
the glorious Second Coming, when Christ shall take 
His power and reign. Then, when the kingdoms 
of this world "have become the Kingdom of Our 
Lord and of His Christ " shall the words of the text 
have their true fulfilment. " Thine eyes shall see 
the King in His beauty — they shall behold the land 
spreading very far forth." And that Kingdom 
shall stretch to the utmost bounds of the Everlast- 
ing Hills ! But, that we may know the full signifi- 
cance of these words for all men, let us ask for whom 
they are meant. Thine eyes? I would fain hope 
it will be true of each one of us here. Isaiah is 
speaking of the righteous, or good man — conscience 
replies " there is none good but One that is God." 
True, none is perfect in righteousness but one, 
"Jesus Christ the Kighteous," but still it remains 
true that in Scripture the line is drawn clear and 
eternal between right and wrong, that Jesus Who 
is the Truth and cannot lie, speaks with a decisive 
distinction of the righteous and the wicked, in the 
words " Then shall the righteous shine forth as 
the sun in the Kingdom of their Father." "Who then 
do we mean by the righteous in this limited and 
imperfect and borrowed sense? Every Baptized 



34 



THE KING AND THE KINGDOM. 



Christian, who by repentance, faith, and obedience 
continues to live in Christ Jesus, and seeks humbly, 
not in his own strength but by the grace of God, to 
live every clay up to his Christian calling. Such an 
one will fail often, and fall, but "his heart standeth 
fast and believeth in the Lord ; " he will not lie in 
the dust, but will "arise and go to His Father" in 
Heaven with true penitence, and ask pardon and 
grace to begin afresh. Though beset by many diffi- 
culties and spiritual foes he will not shrink until he 
see " his desire upon his enemies." Such a man will 
ever aim to clo " His Lord's will," and, though falling 
far short of that perfect standard, will pray and strive 
" to grow in grace, and in knowledge of his Lord and 
Saviour Jesus Christ." 

I cannot stay now to dwell upon this thought, but 
will ask you just to notice that this goodness or right- 
eousness of Christ, at which we, as Christians, are 
bidden to aim, is not a dream, or a far-off idea which, 
exists only in Heaven ; no, Christ came down for this, 
among other reasons, that we might behold a Per- 
fect Man upon earth, and have a pattern to copy. 
He says to us with simple directness — "Learn of 
Me." 

The words of the prophet are very plain, and show 
us how an earnest follower of Jesus Christ will seek 



THE KING AND THE KINGDOM. 



^5 



to consecrate, not only his soul, but his body, and 
every action of his daily life to God's glory. " It is 
certain," says Henry Marty n, "that not only will a 
good principle produce a good act, but the act will 
increase the principle." So the follower of Christ 
will guard — 

His feet — " he that walketh righteously," he will 
ask, do I walk where Jesus would have walked, do I 
ever go into the " counsel of the ungodly," or " stand 
in the way of sinners ? " 

His tongue — " He speaketh uprightly " — he copies 
Him who is "the Truth." 

His heart — " He despiseth the gain of oppression " — 
He is " true and just in all his dealings." 

His hands — He will not be bribed ; will never do 
wrong for the sake of gain. 

His ears — "He stoppeth His ears from hearing of 
blood," closes them against those evil communications 
" which corrupt good manners." 

His eyes — those avenues to the heart for good or 
for ill, — he shutteth from seeing evil. He resists 
temptation for himself, and seeketh not to see evil 
in others. 

Turn we then to the hope set before us, which we 
may dwell upon now as a foretaste of the gladness of 
Christmas, — "thine eyes shall see the King in His 



36 THE KING AND THE KINGDOM. 



beauty." Not now Hezekiah, but Jesus " the King of 
Saints!" 

Dear brethren, perhaps we think this joy is beyond 
us, that it is above our faith to realize, but let us not 
be cast down. Men like ourselves have felt the thrill 
of this sacred joy. Simon could say " mine eyes have 
seen Thy salvation," and who can picture the raptur- 
ous delight, the bounding heart, the glistening eye 
implied in those few words " then were the disciples 
glad when they saw the Lord ! " For, when that glori- 
ous day breaks for us, we shall know Him as the 
Friend who has watched over us, as " the Advocate " 
who has pleaded for us, as the Saviour who has given 
us life immortal. 

0 joy all joys beyond 

To see the Lamb who died, 
To count each sacred wound 

In hands, and feet, and side, 
To give to Him the praise 

Of every triumph won, 
And sing through endless days 

The great things He hath done. 

But we must " look unto Jesus " here, if we would 
behold His glory, and enter into His joy hereafter. 

" Thine eyes shall behold the land spreading very 
far forth" — not the King alone shall the righteous 
behold, but the Kingdom, and its inhabitants ! All 



THE KING AND THE KINGDOM. 



this is pictured for us in the second lesson. Look, 
dear friends, not now at the Holy Angels, but at that 
white-robed throng of the Redeemed, and see what 
lessons concerning God's love it will bring to your 
soul. 

Your heart is depressed with the unbelief and evil 
in the world, " sin abounds," " the love of many," 
perhaps too often of your own heart, " waxes cold," 
and in doubt and fear you ask, as did the disciples, 
" Lord, are there few that be saved ? " No, no, my 
brother, the love of the Omnipotent God is not 
to be baffled thus ! His Kingdom is not a narrow 
principality but a land "spreading very far forth." 
" Few % " Hear S. John's answer : " A great multi- 
tude that no man can. number, of all nations, and kin- 
dreds, and people, and tongues." 

Here at times good may seem to fail, the Church 
of Christ be overwhelmed by the world, but behind 
the veil there comes murmuring up the muffled tread 
of unseen reinforcements, " they that are for us are 
more than they that be against us ! " 

Look again at the history of the heavenly company 
and ask " whence came they," and the answer is given 
— " Out of great tribulation, and have washed their 
robes and made them white, in the Blood of the 
Lamb." 



38 THE KING AND THE KINGDOM. 



Now, brethren, what is one of our chief difficulties 
in rising up to a joyful and spiritual religion ? Is it 
not the feeling that the necessary duties and trials of 
our daily life, the worries at home and the difficulties 
abroad, the hopes and successes in business, fill 
our thoughts, and it seems almost profane to bring 
religion into such matters, and to prepare thus for 
heaven ? Yet what do we read ? The saintly throng 
came out of " great tribulation," and what is " tribu- 
lation " but just that very " rubbing and grinding " 
in the great millstones of daily life, which every son 
of Adam must experience? Some lots are harder, 
some more gentle, some find the hard grinding of 
outward temptation and outward hardship, others 
have to encounter that fierce fight within " of the 
flesh lusting always contrary to the spirit." They 
strive to subdue and keep down by God's grace the 
evil passions and tempers of the heart. But every 
true-hearted soul must pass through the mill, and 
each will find at the last that this dusty daily disci- 
pline has been God's own preparation for the life of 
Saints. 

But, you will say, how can I ever hope to be fit for 
life in that land, the company of those holy souls ? I 
cannot feel true love for God, my best endeavours are 
like spent arrows falling to the ground. My weak- 



THE KING AND THE KINGDOM. 



39 



ness is so great, " my sins Lave taken such hold on 
me that I am not able to look up, and my heart fails 
me." 

But oh, my brother, look again at that multitude, 
and learn. Their robes of righteousness are white, but 
why ? Could they grow good, pure, holy, and per- 
fect upon earth in their own strength ? Ask Jacob, 
David, S. Peter, S. Paul. Were they faultless ? No ! 
They had their trials and temptations, their falls and 
failings, but they had grace also to repent, "they 
washed their robes and made them white in the Blood 
of the Lamb." For they were of that blessed com- 
pany, which we too may join, " who hunger and thirst 
after righteousness ! " 

They felt that sacred longing, and daily sought to 
purify themselves even as their God is pure. 

Thus may we take, for the expression of our hum- 
ble yet confident hope, Tennyson's Prayer of S. 
Asmes : 

" As these white robes are stained and dark 

To yonder shining ground, 
As this poor taper's glimmering spark 

To yonder argent round, 
So shows my soul before the Lamb, 

My spirit before Thee ; 
So in this earthly house I am 

To what I hope to be." 



40 



THE KING AND THE KINGDOM. 



Our Holy Redeemer can take the stained robes of 
our poor lives, if we offer them to Him in faith and 
true repentance, take them and wash them " whiter 
than snow, so as no fuller on earth can whiten." 

And the vision, finally, brings a message of joy and 
comfort for every toiling or sorrowing heart. " The 
souls of the righteous are in the hands of God." 
Thine eyes shall behold the happiness and peace of 
the dear ones whom here it was delight to see and 
love. Their time of trial, their danger of falling 
away, is past : they " are before the throne " on that 
day together. Oh day of strange and wondrous rev- 
elation ! Once more to see, with deeper and purer glad- 
ness, those whom we have loved and lost, knowing 
that partings will be no more. To behold the sor- 
rows of others healed, and wounded hearts bound 
up, " when God shall wipe away all tears from their 
eyes ! " May Christmas, with its many happy gather- 
ings, its many sad memories, draw all our hearts on- 
wards and upwards to that bright and glorious day." 

Come with faith, and self-examination, and repent- 
ance, on Christmas morning, to kneel at the Table 
which God has prepared for His children, that your 
souls may be strengthened and refreshed by the Body 
and Blood of Christ, that there, as you take the 
Pledges of His love to your great and endless comfort, 



THE KING AND THE KINGDOM. 41 

you may hear His voice whisper to your heart " Go 
forth my child strong and courageous, be not weary 
in well doing, thine eyes shall see the King in His 
Beauty, they shall behold the land spreading very 
far forth." 



THE HOLY NATIVITY. 



' ' Glory to God in the Highest, and on earth peace, 
good will to men." 

—Luke ii. 14. 

Christmas is with us, dear friends, the earthly 
Birthday of Jesus Christ, whose Divine Sonship is 
from everlasting. 

On that first Christmas morning at Bethlehem, 
when the Child Jesus lay in the humble cradle, and 
first stretched His infant arms to invite the love and 
adoration of men, one small and humble congregation, 
the shepherds of the fields, gathered round Him, and, 
with His blessed Mother, and Joseph, gazed and wor- 
shipped. As the years passed the circle of worship- 
pers widened, and the gentle power of the Saviour 
drew men's hearts towards Him. And as each Christ- 
mas came the world anew 

" Could see the Mother with the Child 
Whose gentle winning arts 
Have to His little arms beguiled 
So many wounded hearts, 



THE HOLY NATIVITY. 



43 



And centuries came and ran their course 

And unspent all that time, 
Still, still, went forth that Child's dear force, 

And still was at its prime." 

That first Christmas Day was as a new Birthday to 
the world. With Christ came mercy and peace, right- 
eousness and truth, with Him came a fresh spring of 
vigorous life, which converted, and tried hard to save, 
the corrupting and dying Rome, which converted 
and humanized the New Society, and which is to-day 
the salt of the earth. In congratulating ourselves on 
the triumphs of the modern spirit of humanity, of 
noble philanthropy, of zeal for temperance, purity 
and beauty, let us not be so dazzled by these gifts as 
to forget that they are after all Christmas Presents, 
and that we have to thank the Child Jesus for them. 
Therefore let us learn from the angels how we ought 
to do this, let us learn their song afresh this Christ- 
mastide, and let our hearts ring out the Gloria in Ex- 
celsis, " Glory to God in the Highest." " lie came 
down to earth from Heaven, "Who is God and Lord of 
All." Therefore we sing glory to Him in the Highest 
for His miracle of mercy. 

And we remember what He left that He might 
come to us, and what He bore that He might save us, 
and what He wrought that He might heal us, and 



44 



THE HOLY NATIVITY, 



what He taught that He might enlighten us, and so 
on this Christmas morning let our hearts join with the 
angels and sing " Glory to God." 

As the cradle of Bethlehem teaches us again the 
words of the angels' song, so it bids us also to learn the 
spirit in which they sang, which caused their voices to 
ring so true in the shepherds' ears. Their song brought 
such a flood of conviction to the souls of these men, 
because their whole being was in tune, their lives in 
harmony with their words. 

They came from doing God's will, they were then 
rejoicing in His goodness, and longing to proclaim 
that Gospel to mankind ; and the Gloria in Excelsis 
burst spontaneously from their very heart of hearts ! 

Let us take, then, this lesson from our Christmas 
service to show forth the praises of God, not only with 
our lips but in our lives. Resolve to glorify God in 
the Highest by doing His will more perfectly here 
below. Is there any hard feeling in your heart 
toward anyone ? Cast it out this Christmas morning. 
Is there any religious duty unperformed ? Resolve to 
put it off no longer. Is there anyone whom you might 
influence and bring nearer to Christ ? Oh that is just 
the angels' work; if one whom you know shrinks 
from spiritual things, or seems afraid to come to 
church and to confess Christ, whisper to that soul 



THE HOLY NATIVITY. 



45 



the angels' song, " fear not, behold I bring you good 
tidings of great joy." 

So resolving, your message will be a gospel, your 
deeds an " epistle known and read of all men," your 
heart a choir, chanting the Christmas carols of joy and 
love and peace, and your whole life be in itself a true 
Gloria in Excelsis Deo. 



VI. 



WISDOM. 

" The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." 

— Ps. cxi. 10. 

What is wisdom ? In the ages of intellectual and 
moral speculation before the Christian era this was a 
real question, and the pursuit of it influenced men's 
lives, and led them to consecrate thereto the flower 
of their magnificent ability. Philosophy, the love of 
wisdom, became a science, a profession. It was not 
then degraded into a synonym for mere theory, and 
the title of philosopher was of the most honored in 
the world. 

If, however, we ask now, " What is wisdom ? " we 
shall not find the nineteenth century so ready with 
a thoughtfully prepared answer, as the age of Solo- 
mon or Socrates. And why ? Because, for one thing, 
the mind of man in these times has been deluged with 
discoveries. Into the comparatively unknown and 
subterranean region of geography, geology, mechan- 
ics, biology, persevering scientists have been sinking 
artesian wells of experiment deeper and deeper, until 



WISDOM. 



47 



the rock of ignorance has been pierced, and the spring 
of truth, (sometimes mingled with no little sand and 
dirt of error) has burst upwards with astonishing and 
almost explosive force. 

Each additional jet of fact and inference, has in- 
creased the turmoil of the waters which are boiling 
in the caldron of modern thought. There has been 
no time for the sediment of error to be precipitated, 
and the truth to become clear, ere another irrepressi- 
ble fountain has gushed in. 

In his poem in memory of the author of Obermann, 
Matthew Arnold expresses this fact with poignant 
force. He is speaking of the two men entitled to be 
placed on the pedestal of wisdom, and of the serenity 
in which their lives -were passed, or at least reared. 

" By England's lakes in gray old age 

His quiet home one keeps, 
And one, the strong, much-toiling sage, 

In German Weimar sleeps. 
But we brought forth and reared in hours 

Of change, alarm, surprise, 
What shelter to grow ripe is ours, 

What leisure to grow wise ? 
Too fast we live, too much are tried, 

Too harass'd to attain 
Wordsworth's sweet calm, or Goethe's wide 

And luminous view to gain." 



48 



WISDOM. 



In the era of the sixteenth century, when the dis- 
covery of the new Continent and the Reformation in 
religion, had wrought the world up to a condition of 
mental excitement somewhat parallel to this, men's 
minds were partially held in balance by the sober and 
solid judgments of the ancients, with which the system 
of education obliged them to be familiar — the wisdom 
of Aristotle and Plato reached forth a calm, cool, 
restraining hand across the centuries, and tempered 
the rashness of that youthful age. But, probably, 
since man became a thinking being, no age has been 
so ignorant as our own, at least in its more modern 
phase, of what the wise men of old, the giants of intel- 
lect and goodness, thought and taught about the great 
questions of life. The sensible maxim of the ancients 
was thoroughness in education — " learn not many 
things but much." Our modern boards of education 
have reversed this and say to the children : " Learn 
many things, but not much of any ; there is no time 
to master thoroughly any given subject, but you must 
cram into your poor young heads a smattering of 
each." 

This diffusive system of our modern instructors is 
fatal to the growth and fostering spirit of real wisdom, 
for, by overloading the mind with a succession of undi- 
gested fragments of mental food, it stimulates the re- 



WISDOM. 



49 



ceptive faculties to an abnormal development, and 
dwarfs the thinking power to insignificance. Nine- 
teenth century education is, properly speaking, no true 
education at all : it is the exaltation of memory and 
the dethroning of reason. For wisdom does not con- 
sist in the number of things that a man Jcnows, but in 
his ability to use that knowledge well. It is not the 
power of making a brilliant remark or keen retort. 
Still less does it lie in the possession of a glib tongue, 
which can traverse every question at a moment's 
notice. No, wisdom we feel is something higher, 
deeper, wider, nobler than these things. 

The wise man is he to whom we would go for 
advice, upon whose counsel we could rely to teach us 
what is best to do. Wisdom seems to imply a patient 
learning of facts, quiet thought, calm and equal judg- 
ment, combined with a wide and far-sighted vision, 
and unswerving rectitude of principle. It is the qual- 
ity which distinguishes the statesman from the politi- 
cian, and which makes the former the trusted leader of 
a nation to greatness and glory — so that as the wise 
man wrote " the world is saved by wisdom." Yes, 
the wise man's advice, be he rich or poor, learned or 
uncultivated, is more precious than pearls, nay it 
is the only advice which it is ultimately safe to 
follow. 

4 



50 



WISDOM. 



For wisdom is the sworn foe to all shams and pre- 
tence, she must have truth — hence she restrains men 
from worshipping mere fashion and show, and despis- 
ing inward worth. She teaches parents that it is the 
real interest of their children not to seem to know, but 
to know, not to appear to do, but really to do, what is 
right. 

"Wisdom, again, is the enemy of our weakness of im- 
patience. She teaches us that the natural growth of 
a healthy tree is more durable and better than the 
exotic development of a hothouse, that the short cut 
to knowledge is apt to land men in a quicksand of 
sciolism, that the fortune piled up hastily, by rash if 
not unjust speculations or dealing, is apt to be like Jo- 
nah's gourd, which " came up in a night and perished 
in a night." "Where then," we cry, in the words of 
Job, as we survey the features of this shifting and 
questioning age, " where shall wisdom be found, and 
where is the place of understanding ? " " The depth 
saith it is not in me, and the sea saith it is not in me," 
the world of nature, and the mere knowledge of its 
composition and laws, cannot endow mankind with 
wisdom " seeing it is hid from all living." Let us take 
the solemn answer : " God knoweth the place thereof, 
and unto man He said : Behold the fear of the Lord, 
that is wisdom, and to depart from evil is understand- 



WISDOM. 



51 



ing." Yes, wisdom is from above, from God "the Only 
Wise," and " entering into holv souls maketh them 
friends of God. She is the brightness of the everlast- 
ing light, the unspotted mirror of the power of God, 
and the image of His goodness." — Wisd. vii. 26. And 
thus are we brought round again to our text, " the 
fear of the Lord," that is the reverence for the Lord, 
His will and His grace, " is the beginning of wis- 
dom." The foundation of a wise life, a wise genera- 
tion, a wise empire, is this, the devout reverence for 
God and His holy laws. This is the great truth which 
all history teaches, reinforcing thus the express state- 
ment of those holy men of old, " who spoke as they 
were moved by the Holy Ghost." The fear of God, 
the 'reverence for His will and laws, is the beginning, 
the foundation, of all true wisdom : that which should 
first of all things be taught to the little children, as 
the one essential condition of a good and happy life. 
But the delusion of the present clay is that religion, 
instead of being the foundation, is the ornamental 
coping, which may or may not be added in later life ! 
Ah, how many lives will have been sacrificed to this 
Moloch of man's manufacture, how many generations 
have lived stunted, harassed, degraded lives, before 
the nations are led back, through darkness and bit- 
terness, through tears and blood, from the drifting 



52 



WISDOM. 



waves, the weltering quicksands of anarchy in faith, 
morals, and politics, to the old and only sure moor- 
ings, " that fear of the Lord which is the beginning of 
wisdom " ? 



VII. 



SELF-MASTERY. 

" He that strivetb for the mastery is temperate in all 
things." 

—1 Cor. ix. 25. 

The proximity of Corinth to the scene of the Isth- 
mian games, might have suggested the appropriate- 
ness of the simile which S. Paul here introduces with 
so much effect. In any case, however, the foot-race 
is one of the simplest and most universal forms of 
athletic competition, and would serve his purpose. 

This was first to show his readers that the Christian 
course demands an eager determination and commen- 
surate resolution. Christian sanctification and per- 
fection are not to be the inevitable prize of a careless 
and slothful pursuit — no, this demands a clear and 
definite resolve, and a firm and consistent walk in 
life ; they require the diligent and earnest use of all 
the means of grace, and a zealous endeavour to prac- 
tise the virtues of a godly life. And then he turns 
to one special condition of success on the racecourse, 
as emblematic of the Christian career. 



54 



SELF-MASTERY. 



For athletic success a man must, at least for a con- 
siderable period of training, be temperate in all things. 

In preparing for athletic competition at races, the 
selected contesting crew of a college eight, have for 
many weeks beforehand to undergo a strict course of 
training. A special table is set for them in the dining- 
hall at which only the prescribed food is permitted; 
regular hours and regular exercises are enforced, all 
use of tobacco, pastry, or sweets, is forbidden, and the 
eagerness to win laurels for their college or Alma 
Mater, carries the young men through a season of 
real hardness, that they may the more successfully 
strive for the mastery. 

And this condition to athletic success, is a condition 
also, the Apostle would say, of spiritual victory. The 
Christian, if he is to hope for success in running the 
race set before him, must " be temperate in all 
things." 

Let us for a moment pause to ascertain the exact 
meaning which the Apostle intends to convey by this 
word. 

In Aristotle, the father of general ethical principles, 
whose writings are a guide on this class of subjects, 
there are four words which distinguish four classes in 
connection with self-restraint. There is the god^pgdv, 
the man with whom virtue has become a habit so 



SELF-MASTERY. 



55 



fixed, that his will experiences little effort in keeping 
the moral law. 

There is the dno\affTos, the licentious man, who 
yields at once to all the impulses of passion, with whom 
vice is a habit. 

Then there are two intermediate classes, with whom 
the struggle is real, but one of which, the dxparr/s, 
the undisciplined man, yields, while the other, the 
iyuparrfb, the man of self-mastery, conquers. This 
last is S. Paul's word, which literally means, master of 
self, having the will in control, like the skilful driver 
of a spirited horse. 

In all things then we must be master of ourselves, 
controllers of our wills and passions, if we would fol- 
low in the footsteps of Christ. And the text seems to 
illustrate one of the noteworthy characteristics of the 
Gospel, as contrasted with some other religious systems. 

Christ did not impose upon his Church, nor does His 
Church impose upon the world, any detailed code of 
restrictions upon conduct. The great beacons of so- 
cial morality, and of family life, burn brightly in the 
Gospels and the Ten Commandments, but the details 
of their application are left to the refined moral sense, 
which was to be one of the fruits of the sacramental 
life of union with Christ. Our Blessed Lord and His 
Apostles gave, and the Church has since aimed to give, 



56 



SELF-MASTERY. 



principles, motives, and forces, which shall enable men 
to direct their lives aright, as surely as the compass 
directs the mariner. 

The principle of self-control, self-mastery, is one 
of these, and it is a principle which the approaching 
season of Lent is provided to remind us of, and to 
strengthen. 

Lent should be a very real and blessed help in this, 
for it provides us with a special occasion on which we 
can prove whether we are masters of ourselves, or if 
we have let the reins fall loose, and have lost con- 
trol. Of excess in eating and drinking I need not 
perhaps say much, most of us feel that such forms of 
animal indulgence are degrading — yet some whole- 
some Lenten rule in such matters, especially on the 
Wednesdays and Fridays, may help. 

In occupations the Church has favoured pursuits of 
learning, discovery and science ; in amusements, how- 
ever, there is probably more real danger of a loss of 
power and time, a dissipation of money and energy, 
which may become a danger. The Church Catholic 
has ever been very indulgent to the innocent amuse- 
ments of her children, she has never proscribed the 
Theatre, properly conducted, or orderly and innocent 
dances, or other forms of true amusement, recognized 
and regulated by the rules of a healthy and reason- 



SELF-MASTERY. 



57 



able society. But she has very carefully taught her 
children that they are by their Baptism to renounce 
the Devil, the AVorld, and the Flesh, that is, that when 
Conscience, enlightened by the Church's teaching, 
warns them that an occupation or an amusement 
is leading them into sin, either to the undue waste 
of time, money, or strength, the neglect of duty to 
God, or to man, then they are bound as Christians 
to renounce, or so to modify it that it shall not be 
a temptation. 

In the ascent of the slopes of the Rocky Mountains, 
and in descending the abrupt faces of the western 
side, great precautions are taken to maintain a com- 
plete control. Every brake is manned by experienced 
brakemen, and the huge Mogul engine attached to 
the rear, reverses its action, so as yet further to lessen 
the danger. In addition to these means of self-con- 
trol, at various distances lines branch off on an upward 
curve. The switch is held ready, in the event of a 
runaway, to allow the train to turn up this sidetrack 
where it can be stopped. 

Such a purpose may Lent serve to the Christian. 
"We know how easy it is for engagements to multiply, 
expenditure to grow, strength to be dissipated. It 
is hard to accept an invitation here, and to refuse 
it there, and, half against our better judgment, we 



58 



SELF-MASTERY. 



may know that we are living faster than we feel to be 
sensible or right. Then comes Lent, the quiet Season 
for pause and recollection, into which we ma} r enter 
and rest awhile, and perchance plan out our life more 
carefully and wisely for the future. 

It is well, then, that all Church people should be 
resolved beforehand, to use Lent to the best advan- 
tage. Let there be a definite arrangement of time 
for increased devotion, and the pursuit of some 
special occupation, such as the study of some book 
of the Bible, or some good Church History. And 
I trust all will resolve during the solemn Forty Days 
to forego public and private festivities, attendance at 
Theatres, dances or other social parties. The tempo- 
rary self-denial will not be hard ; the permanent gain 
in increased self-mastery may, by God's grace, be real 
and considerable. Around the Church the world will 
go on in ignorance or carelessness of this blessed Sea- 
son, but the example of a consistent obedience to the 
Church's rule, must have a wholesome influence, and 
the prayers that will rise daily from these hallowed 
walls, cannot but bring a blessing not merely upon 
ourselves but upon our City. 



VIII. 



EVOLUTION". 

"My Father worketh hitherto and I work." 
" 0 Lord how manifold are Thy works. In wisdom 
hast Thou made them all." 

— S. John v. 17 ; Ps. civ. 24. 

As the infant grows to manhood, the eye gains 
powers of clearness and comprehensiveness. At first 
only near objects are perceived, and not in true pro- 
portion, gradually the wider vision comes, and the 
capacity to view the whole and its parts in due per- 
spective. So is it largely in the growth of the race. 
Mankind, as it has advanced towards maturity, has 
oftentimes had to shift or enlarge its horizon, and 
after the change in the mental telescope has been 
made, and the lenses readjusted, it has found the 
vision to be the same, but more perfect and more 
inspiring. 

At the present day we can hardly understand the 
mental shock, which the discoveries of Kepler and 
Newton administered to the accepted notions of the 



60 



EVOLUTION. 



universe. That the sun did not revolve around 
the earth, that the sidereal heavens did not exist 
merely as a canopy, shot with points of light, for the 
glory and beauty of the earth, that the earth herself 
was but one small member, of one small system, in 
one infinitesimal fraction of the universal space, this, 
at the time, appeared a destructive revolution in 
thought, which would shake the very foundations of 
religious belief. Now it is almost as hard for us to 
revert to the ancient conception of the universe, and 
we see that the Copernican system of astronomy has 
enlarged and ennobled our ideas of the Creator and 
the works of His hands. 

In the present century an even greater revolution 
of traditional ideas and ways of thinking has been 
achieved by scientific research, in many fields, of 
man's relation to the world of nature, and of other 
living creatures. And, as in the past ages Galileo and 
Bruno were objects of suspicion, and their physical 
theories were supposed to be subversive of Divine 
Revelation, so it is not unnatural, that at the outset, 
the geological deductions of Miller and Lyall, and the 
biological theories of Darwin and Haeckel, should 
have aroused a like alarm. 

But whether we regard the theories of Development 
and Evolution, which are popularly known as Darwin- 



EVOLUTION. 



61 



ism, to be absurd, or non-proven, or eventually certain 
of universal acceptance, they seem to me to have at 
least added grandeur, clearness, and reasonableness, to 
our thoughts about the great Creator. 

"As with the Copernican astronomy," says Mr. 
Fiske, "so with Darwinian biology, we rise to higher 
views of the workings of God, and of the nature of 
man, than was ever attainable before. The old order 
changeth, yielding place to new, and God fulfils Him- 
self in many ways." 

Let us pause, brethren, to meditate on this matter. 
That God should have created the universe by the 
word of His power, is a glorious fact before which our 
spirits bow. But what if we may catch a glimpse 
of wondrous laws, and enduring processes, through 
which, out of light, unsubstantial, whirling, nebulas 
(the chaos of Holy Scripture), solid worlds, were, 
beneath the brooding guidance of the Spirit, slowly 
condensed, and became habitable globes! What if, 
for aught we know, this same creative process, in 
various stages, is now in operation throughout the 
fields of space, whereby fresh and yet fresher homes 
are now being made ready for living, sentient, reason- 
ing beings, where they shall awake to conscious life, 
and learn to know and love their Heavenly Father's 
smile ! 



62 



EVOLUTION. 



Will not this enlarged vision lead us to understand 
more fully the Psalmist's exultant cry : " O Lord, how 
manifold are Thy works ! " 

The interesting biography of the late Dorothea 
Dix, heroine philanthropist of Massachusetts, relates 
how in her sickness, when racked with cough and 
pleuritic pains, she rose to take her medicine, she 
gazed from her window with delight at the glorious 
stars, and returned to bed calmed by the sight, " to 
thank God for His goodness, and to meditate upon 
His glory, though she could not sleep." 

Such must ever be the effect of meditating upon 
the grandeur of Creation, for every thoughtful and 
religious mind. First, we learn to see the greatness 
of Creation and its marvels, then our own littleness, 
and then there bursts in upon us the supreme Yision of 
the height, the depth, the length, the breadth of that 
Love, which broods over a nascent world in some 
immeasurably distant constellation, which inspires 
the mother's loving wisdom and skilful care, in nour- 
ishing the tiny spark of her infant's life ! 

And then we take another step. If, throughout 
countless ages, this our earthly home was prepared 
for habitation, and man came at length as the crown 
of God's work, the being to which all had tended, 
and to which all looked as the head and high-priest 



E VOL UTION. 



63 



of God's earthly Creation — surely God our Maker has 
some great purpose in this patient work, brought to 
this perfection. The stones and sticks, the earth and 
water, may be sublimated to their constituent ele- 
ments, and become nebulous again, the fish, birds, 
and cattle that never knew their Maker, may, per- 
haps, close their existence in one span, but that man 
should have been reared up to a consciousness of the 
Divine Creator, should exhibit in the past such latent 
capacities for progress, which are but presages of 
yet greater in store, that man should have learnt to 
knoAV God's will, and, through the Incarnation of 
the Eternal Son, have grace more and more perfectly 
to act as God's agent, and to do His will and work 
upon earth, these marvels of Creative might and 
merc} r , the more deeply we ponder them, seem to 
make it more and more impossible that the Life of 
man should be wasted and dissipated, the Experience 
lost, the Growth, so well begun, cease, when the 
material body returns to its elements ! Thus the con- 
templation of Creation in all its breadth and wonder, 
comes to reinforce the teaching of Divine Revela- 
tion, that while "the body returns to the earth as it 
was, the spirit shall return to the God who gave it." 
"For my own part therefore" (writes John Fiske) 
" I believe in the immortality of the soul, not in the 



64 



EVOLUTION. 



sense in which I accept the demonstrable truths of 
science, but as a supreme act of faith in the reason- 
ableness of God's work. 

"The materialist holds that, when you have de- 
scribed the universe of phenomena, the whole story 
is told. I feel the omnipresence of mystery in such 
wise, as to make it far easier for me to adopt the view 
of Euripides, that what we call death may be but the 
dawning of true knowledge and of true life." — Des- 
tiny of Man, p. 117. 

Then, brothers, if, in this little corner of His 
Universe, the Almighty Creator thought enough of 
us to teach us about Himself, and to reveal to us the 
laws of His great world, is not ours the responsibil- 
ity to strive to live our lives here for Him, and so to 
educate ourselves, under His guidance, for we know 
not what higher destiny, what far grander labours, in 
our future Home? 



IX. 



EVERLASTING LOYE. 

" The Lord hath appeared of old unto me saying, 
Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love, there- 
fore with loving kindness have I drawn thee." 

Jeremiah xxxi. 3. 

It is instructive to compare the three special Sun. 
days before Lent with the three great Festivals that 
follow it. Septuagesima, the Sunday of the Creation, 
Easter Day, the festival of the new Creation, Sexa- 
gesima with its commemoration of the Fall and 
Paradise Lost, Ascension Day, the festival of the 
Restoration of Man to God's right hand, and Para- 
dise Regained, Quinquagesima tells of the call of 
Abraham, the first step in God's loving plan of 
Redemption, in appointing the father of the chosen 
people, Pentecost recalls the crowning act of the 
same great design, in the descent of the Holy Ghost 
upon the Apostles, the Fathers of the Christian 
Church. Again, Quinquagesima and Pentecost are 
but the Latin and Greek forms of the same word, 
5 



66 



EVERLASTING LOVE. 



signifying the Fiftieth day from Easter, the one be- 
fore, the other after. Therefore from this Sunday to 
Whitsunday there stretch the great Hundred days, 
of which these are the beginning- and the end. Look- 
ing thus at the whole plan of Redemption, we find 
that Quinquagesima stands at the beginning of the 
season of the Temptation, Humiliation, Passion and 
Cross ; Pentecost closes the glorious Fifty days after 
Easter and the Ascension. 

And as each soul draws near to the Hundred Days 
of wondrous memorial, desiring humbly as a child of 
the Church, to observe them duly, he will find over 
each of these days, as over the entrance to a royal 
palace, the words written " I kave loved thee with 
an everlasting love, therefore with loving kindness 
have I drawn thee ! " 

We can hardly do better on the threshold of this 
wonderful Season, than contemplate anew the old, 
yet ever blessed truth, of the undying love of God 
working out the restoration of man. 

Stand, then, and look up the long avenue of history, 
the broad highway of life, as it is displayed alike in 
the Bible, and in secular chronicles, fix your gaze only 
on one side of the road, consider only one chain of 
events, and it is easy to see that the Almighty has 
made that chain out of the links of His Everlasting 



EVERLASTING LOVE. 



G7 



Love, which runs on from one to another of the mile- 
stones of His Mercies. 

The Creation of man, the long suffering which has 
borne with his rebellions, the preservation of Noah and 
his family from perishing by water, the rescue from 
Egypt, and from Babylon, the worship of priests, the 
warnings of prophets, the wise rule of good kings, 
echo on the same message from age to age. And on 
Good Fridajr, and on Easterday, all these acts of deliv- 
erance are summed up and consummated in the Eternal 
Deliverance, all the past promises of pardon and peace 
are enriched and ratified by the Redeemer. God Him- 
self, the Eternal Son, has mounted the pulpit of the 
Cross, that there, with outstretched arms, thorn- 
crowned brow, and pierced side, He might preach 
in deed as well as in word to every child of man " I 
have loved thee with an everlasting Love, therefore 
with loving kindness have I drawn thee. 5 ' 

Turn, now, your attention to other side of the high- 
way of life, and ask, what are we to say to that other 
class of events, equally recorded in Holy Scripture? 
They stretch down the centuries in parallel line to 
those just observed, like the conductors of the light- 
ning of Divine Wrath, which leaps on from link to 
link of this dread chain of chastisements ! 

The Flood which came and swept them all away, 



68 



EVERLASTING LOVE. 



the destruction of Pharaoh and his host, the many 
troubles of Israel, culminating in the Captivity and 
the Dispersion. Besides these the continual trials, 
falls, sorrows of man, since the Redeemer has come. 
Do these things speak of a suspension or extinction of 
the Everlasting Love, of its place being taken by an 
everlasting "Wrath or Vengeance ? 

Our answer must depend upon whether we have as 
yet risen up to the full understanding of the true 
nature of love. 

" True love," wrote the present Bishop of Salisbury 
in his Bampton Lectures, " is not mere benevolence, 
it is a burning fire, a passionate eagerness to possess 
the souls of those who are loved." 

Therefore it is that the perfect love of God em- 
braces, both what in our poor earthly language we 
term the wrath of God against all unrighteousness of 
men, and also the grief of the Holy Spirit at man's 
ingratitude, as where it is written " it repented God 
that He had made man, and it grieved Him at the 
heart." 

There is no contradiction between those two great 
texts, "God is love" and "Our God is a consuming 
fire," for the Love Divine is a Consuming Fire, which 
warms, lightens, and quickens all whose nature will 
receive it, which burns up all the wood, hay, stub- 



EVERLASTING LOVE. 



G9 



ble, which cannot receive it. And so when the sword 
flashes forth in terrible judgment, the Hand behind 
the cloud that wields it, is the Hand of Love. 

Consider but one illustration from the Bible, that 
of the Flood. The Eternal Father looked down from 
Heaven and saw that "all flesh" (with one exception) 
''had corrupted its way upon the earth," and that, 
should the righteous Noah pass away, no pure seed 
would remain. The only way to save humanity was 
to cut off the sinful generation, just as the wise state 
will remove criminals from society, and mankind is 
reaping the results of that merciful severity to the 
present hour. Or, for the wretched sinners them- 
selves, was it better for them to go on in impenitence 
to worse degradation, or to be taken away ere the 
cup of their iniquity was filled ? 

This too we know, that the very first mission of 
the Loving Saviour was to these very souls, who had 
been removed in judgment. Do we often think of 
this convincing proof of the Everlasting Love ? In that 
brief interlude, while His Sacred Body rested in the 
tomb, Jesus went (says S. Peter) " in the Spirit, and 
preached unto the spirits in prison, which sometime 
were disobedient, when once the long suffering of God 
waited in the days of Noah while the ark was a pre- 
paring." 1 Peter iii. 19-20. 



70 



EVERLASTING LOVE. 



And we may be sure they listened to Him then. For 
one hundred and twenty years Noah had preached of 
the judgment upon sin, — and no one was converted. 
Our blessed Saviour went to them, fragrant with the 
incense of His Eternal Sacrifice, to tell them the fresh 
story of His Passion, to preach deliverance unto the 
captives, — how could they resist this appeal of His 
Everlasting Love ? 

Truly, then, in Judgment as in Mercy, and quite as 
clearly, the voice of our Father comes to us through 
all the ages, and pleads " think not of Me, as Satan 
would have you, as a severe, suspicious Magistrate 
or Taskmaster, realize that I am a Father whose love 
for My children never fails nor grows weary, though 
they may forget Me, whose Hands are stretched out 
all the day long, even to a disobedient and gainsay- 
ing people." 

And what response shall we make, brethren, to this 
appeal of the Everlasting Love ? The main purpose 
and end of a devout Lent and Easter is, first that 
we may better realize the great love of God in Christ 
Jesus our Lord reconciling the world unto Himself, 
secondly that we may learn to know our own souls 
better, and seek to strengthen their weakness, and 
thirdly that we may give ourselves more freely 
and unselfishly to the service of the God of love. 



EVERLASTING LOVE. 



71 



Hence, the spirit in which we enter upon Lent should 
be— 

" My G-od I love Thee, not because I hope for Heaven thereby, 
Nor yet because if I love not I must forever die, 
Not with the hope of gaining aught, not seeking a reward, 
But as Thyself hast loved me, 0 ever loving Lord." 

In our dealings with God let us not ask " what must 
{ do," but rather what may I do to show my love for 
Him " who loved me and gave Himself for me" ? 

What then may you seek to do and offer in love ? 

1. To know more of your Heavenly Father. Surely 
if an absent father were to write home affectionate 
letters and to send constant gifts for the children, 
we should reckon them a selfish and ungrateful 
family if they replied to the mother who loved to 
read to them their father's letters : " O give us the 
presents, Ave do not care to hear about our father 
in those long letters." Such children you would not 
be! So I would suggest to you to take one of the 
Gospels and divide it into a portion for each day 
in Lent, read those verses on your knees, and pray 
that those loving words may kindle your heart to 
love your Father more as you know Him better. 

2. To know r more of your own heart. Take some 
time each Friday in Lent to examine your own con- 
science, and as you note fairly and honestly your faults 



72 



EVERLASTING LOVE. 



and shortcomings confess them humbly with a prayer 
for pardon and earnest resolve after amendment of life. 
And in this great work of soul care do not neglect 
the advice and assistance of your parish Priest, and 
the benefit of spiritual counsel and absolution humbly 
and sincerely desired, nor the assistance of books of 
devotion. 

3. To serve and worship God more lovingly. "An 
offering of a free heart will I give Thee." This is 
the spirit which our Father in Heaven longs for 
in His children. The religion of duty is good and 
right, but touch that religion with love and it is 
transfigured and glorified. Worship in church be- 
comes a delight, and the prayers hitherto so per- 
functory and leaden fly upwards as the " dove with 
silver wings and her feathers like gold." Such should 
be the quality of our heart's devotion, and we may 
well add something also to its quantity, such as a few 
moments of prayer, including the Ash Wednesday 
Collect at midday ; and in the systematic attendance 
at some or all of the Lenten Services according to 
health and ability. 

" I have loved thee with an everlasting love, there- 
fore with loving kindness have I drawn thee." 

After we have allowed ourselves thus to be drawn 
by the blessed Jesus to follow His footsteps, and 



EVERLASTING LOVE. 



73 



to creep ever nearer to His side through Lent and 
Passiontide and Good Friday, we may hope to profess 
before the Altar on Easter morning, as we draw nigh 
to receive the Most Holy Gifts, " Lord Thou knowest 
all things, Thou knowest my failings, my selfishness, 
my sins, but Thou knowest too that at last — at last 
this ice-bound heart has been touched by Thine Ever- 
lasting Love, Thou knowest that I love Thee." 



X. 



" THE POWEK OF SATAN." 

"To open their eyes, and to turn them from dark- 
ness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God." 

— Acts xxvi. 18. 

"We are slow to learn that things which we cannot 
see may be just as real and just as strong as things 
which are before our eyes. 

It were hard for us to understand or believe in the 
power of electricity if we did not read the message 
which it brings to us in a few moments under oceans 
and from one nation to another. And yet experience 
and wisdom teach us in time, not only that unseen 
things are as real and as mighty, but that they are 
often far more mighty, than things which we see. 

The air is invisible, yet we know the wondrous 
power of its rushing blast ; the few drops of poison 
may be there, and like clearest water, and yet prove 
fatal to the strongest man. And this is so with the 
Power of Satan. It is itself invisible. We do not see 
the dark drapery of the Devil's Dragoons ; we do not 



'THE POWER OF SATAN. 



75 



hear the marshalling of his myriads, nor can oar sight 
detect the particular spirit of evil who may at any 
time creep to our side and whisper his temptation in 
our ear, nor do we hear the Master himself as he goes 
roaring about " seeking whom he may devour." " No 
man " saith the Scriptures " hath seen God at any 
time " and so " the fool hath said in his heart there 
is no God ; " and just so the same fool may say, because 
his eyes do not behold the Spirit of Evil, there is no 
" power of Satan." 

And yet dear friends if thus we were to side with 
the fool, and say there is no power of Satan because 
we cannot see it, we should be " making God a liar, 
and His word would not abide in us." For it is 
Jesus Himself, the Incarnate Truth, who says these 
words to S. Paul about the " Power of Satan." It is 
Jesus who speaks in the Gospel about Satan's king- 
dom " being divided against itself" — who declares 
with unerring decision that Satan had bound the poor 
woman with the spirit of infirmity, " lo these eighteen 
years," and who so far recognizes his terrible influence 
over men by calling him " the Prince of this World." 

It is true that our Lord came into the world for 
this very purpose — to overthrow the works and the 
kingdom of Satan, to bind the " Strong Man " and to 
spoil his goods. It is true that our Lord encountered 



76 "THE POWER OF SATAN." 

Satan in the Temptation in the wilderness, defeated 
his three assaults and put him to the rout. It is 
true that He spoke of " Satan falling like lightning," 
and of the " Prince of this world being cast out " 
(by the mystery of His Cross and Passion). Yet there 
is no doubt that " the Power of Satan " though shat- 
tered yet to some extent remained, that he rallied his 
routed forces to lead them no longer against the vic- 
torious general, but to harass the march of His army, 
and to capture stragglers and even detachments off 
their guard. 

S. Paul long afterwards warns the Ephesians and 
Thessalonians of the wiles of the devil, " the Prince of 
the power of the air." S. Peter cries to his hearers, 
" be sober, be vigilant ; because your adversary the 
devil as a roaring lion walketh about, seeking whom 
he may devour." 

S. John, writing of ages which are yet in the womb 
of the unknown future, speaks of Satan as " going out " 
in quite the last times to " deceive the nations." 

Do not let us then flatter ourselves that his power 
is nought, that we have nothing to fear, or nothing to 
guard against; the "Power of Satan" still in some 
senses is allowed to stand. 

" The Power of Satan ! " I will ask you to consider 
this terrible subject dear friends at this beginning of 



"THE POWER OF S ATA IV." 77 

Lent. Why? Why think of, why look at anything 
so hateful, so hideous ? 

Just for the reason that our Lord sent S. Paul " to 
open the eyes of the Gentiles " in order that seeing 
the horror of " darkness " they might " turn to the 
light," and from the " Power of Satan unto God." 

Do we dear friends realize clearly enough the 
horror of the darkness of that kingdom, and all the 
black misery of those over whom Satan has really 
gained the mastery ? 

Sad as it may be it is right for us sometimes to see 
the dark as well as the bright side of things, and to 
consider a proof of the " power of Satan " too sadly 
common. 

The dark waters of the great river flow mournfully 
under its bridges, and wash the walls of the huge 
warehouses on either bank, and stir the multitude of 
shipping on its breast. It is early morning and the 
lights of the metropolis still quiver on the surface of 
the stream, and send down into the water long yellow 
shafts. At some little landing stage there is a crowd 
— in the midst a policeman. What is it ? " Oh," some 
one says, " a body has been dragged up, a woman 
dead for some hours." And as a Christian man steps 
up he beholds the piteous sight that the poet has made 
familiar to us all, and as he gazes sorrowfully on the 



78 



"THE POWER OF SATAN. 



cold, pale face, the dank clinging garments, the wreck 
perhaps scarcely to be recognized, he asks what has 
worked this dreadful thing, and we must answer "the 
Power of Satan ! " Yes, that poor, soiled, drowned 
creature lying there in the mud, with no one to identify 
her, was not so many years before a bright, innocent, 
happy little child, living in some country village, with 
loving mother and father and brothers and sisters, 
Baptized into Christ's Church, yes, and within reach of 
the means of grace and holy teaching. And Satan 
desired to have her soul, and tempted gently at first, 
whispered of vanity, and love of dress, and admiration. 
And her parents were not careful to guard her as 
they should, and to teach her that modesty of manner 
which is the fairest ornament of womanhood ; she 
was allowed, it may be, to play and stroll in the street 
with, rough companions, and to be not very careful in 
her words and behaviour. So little by little Satan 
rivetted his power over her will, and then at the 
right time sent the earthly tempter and she fell. 
Then followed the flight from home, the life in sin, 
and then, little by little, sin's miserable train of fol- 
lowers, an injured conscience attempted to be quenched 
by drink, poverty, quarrels, reproaches, and at last 
desertion. 

Through the crowded streets the poor wretch crept, 



"THE POWER OF SATAN." 



79 



"home she had none," her sin had closed the door 
behind her, and its bright memories came back to 
mock her in the hour of despair. Onwards she moves 
in the evening beneath the gas lamps to the bridge, 
and there is her Wilderness of Temptation. Satan, her 
master so long, whispers " one little step and all will be 
ended. You are deserted, you cannot for very shame 
go home, be brave, and die." Her guardian angel, so 
long unheeded, makes one last effort to save her, he 
brings back the memory of her early prayers, and her 
mother's love ; but Satan has so long led her will cap- 
tive that she yields again. One wild plunge, and the 
dark river sweeps down one more ruined life, one 
more monument of the " Power of Satan ! " 

"All" as we sa}^ "is over." All over here, but 
what of the great Hereafter ? 

Oh, that "Power of Satan" marked, like that of a 
fearful gale, by wrecks strewing the shores of life ! 
Men and women, why do we not open our eyes to 
see the darkness of its terrors and " turn to light and 
to God"? 

Oh yes, believe me, it is from our foolish blindness 
and carelessness that Satan wins the battle so often. 
Men are sent to sea in crank and unseaworthy crafts, 
the gale bursts on them and they perish. "Whose 
fault is that ? Fathers and mothers let their children 



80 



"THE POWER OF SATAN. 



embark on the sea of life, anyhow, without seeing 
that they are carefully warned against dangers, and 
taught how to resist and flee from these terrible sins. 
So the tempest of temptation bursts upon them, and 
I read in the columns of the same newspaper, which 
tells of the shipwrecks on our coast, the Police Intelli- 
gence of far worse shipwrecks of Immortal Souls on 
the rocks of immorality, drunkenness, murder, and 
theft ! 

Oh dear friends shall we sleep on in these matters, 
till the " Power of Satan " is triumphant, and then 
Pharisaically be thankful that there are prisons, and 
gallows to defend society ? 

Lent is the time to be real : " to be sober and vigi- 
lant," to ask ourselves, " am I under the ' Power of 
Satan' ? Am I allowing those of my own household 
to grow up without warning and guarding against 
his power, without teaching them to use faithfully 
prayer and the Holy Church ? " Then let us pray on 
our knees this night that the same Jesus who delivered 
S. Paul, will turn us and ours " from darkness to light, 
from the power of Satan unto God." 

For let none despair; you may feel that Satan's 
power is strong, that you have dark sins on your 
soul which you would dread for others to know ; but 
" if we confess our sins He is faithful and just to 



THE POWER OF SATAN." 



81 



forgive us our sins." Remember, true repentance 
has the promise of forgiveness, and " though your 
sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow " 
for "the Blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all 
sin." 

6 



XI. 



THE EXILE OF SIK 

" Weep ye not for the dead, neither bemoan him, 
but weep sore for him that goeth away for he shall 
return no more, nor see his native country." 

— Jeremiah xxii. 16. 

The reign of Josiah marked an epoch in the life of 
the people of Israel. The nation had been in corrup- 
tion and decay for years, and reign after reign was 
falling into a more helpless state. But, just before the 
catastrophe, came the reign of Josiah as a bright holy 
interlude before the captivity. 

You will recollect what is told us about the good 
reign of that pious king " who did that which was 
right in the sight of the Lord," who put away the 
idols, restored the Temple and its worship, republished 
for his people the recovered law of Moses, and con- 
summated the glories of his reign in the celebration 
of a Passover, of which the writer of the Chronicles 
says with emphasis " there was no Passover like to 
that kept in Israel from the days of Samuel the 
Prophet." 



THE EXILE OF SIN. 



83 



But this was but the last flickering up of the flame. 
Almost at once comes the record of one of the most 
tragic events in the Old Testament, the invasion of 
Pharaoh Xecho, the expedition of Josiah to Megiddo, 
and his death there fighting nobly for his people. 

It is now that Jeremiah speaks in the words of the 
text, speaks as the mouthpiece of all that lingered of 
the true godly life of Israel. He had mourned, as 
you may read in the Chronicles, with "singing men 
and singing women" over the great king, he had 
witnessed the mock reign, for three short months, of 
Jehoahaz or Shallum, and he had seen that unfortu- 
nate prince, the worthless son of a noble father, bound 
by Pharaoh and carried away into captivity. The 
Prophet stands then, his mind filled with the bright- 
ness of the past reign, but clouded by the prospects 
of the future, stands looking from time to time at the 
royal sepulchre where the great king lay, and then 
gazing wistfully after the sad procession which was 
conducting the young prince into a strange land. 
Then he breaks out into the cry — " Weep ye not 
for the dead, neither bemoan him, but weep sore for 
him that goeth away for he shall return no more, nor 
see his native country." These are strange words. 

What, weep not for the pious king that is slain, for 
the vanished hope of Israel ; but weep for the wicked 



84 



THE EXILE OF SIN. 



and worthless son, whose captivity is perhaps after 
ali a gain ? 

Is the great Prophet in earnest, does he really mean 
what he says ? 

Yes, there is no doubt of his meaning, there is 
too sternly sad a ring in the words, to leave room 
for question — but what then is in his mind ? 

It is for the cause of Shallum's exile that the 
Prophet would have the people weep, the cause which 
had been at work for long years to bring about the 
captivity, the sin of Israel's kings and people which 
had cried out for the punishment so long delayed. 

For we find the character of Shallum depicted for 
us in words so often necessarily employed that they 
come with a mournful iteration, " he did that which 
was evil in the sight of the Lord according to all that 
his fathers had done." Jeremiah looked at the exiled 
king, and saw in him a type of the nation's sin and 
the nation's doom. " Weep not " then he cries, " for 
the righteous Josiah, beloved of God and man, he is 
dead and at peace, but weep for Sin, for the national 
Sin that has banished Shallum, for the Sin that will 
banish you ! " 

What then is sin ? What do we mean when we 
speak of a sinful man, a wicked action, a bad life? We 
mean this ; that sin is (and the word in the Greek 



THE EXILE OE SIN. 



85 



means this) to miss the mark, the end of our being, to 
become exiles from God and our true home. 

Brethren, ask yourselves this question, do I think 
of sin as severely as Jeremiah did ? 

Which do we most commonly pity, the young man 
falling step by step into habits of sin, of swearing, of 
stealing, of intemperance, or the good man cut off by 
some sudden blow in the prime of life % 

Many, very many, I fancy, would reverse the 
prophet's judgment, and deem death and not sin to 
be the worst evil that can befall. 

If this is so it must be because we do not realize 
what sin is, that it is the exile of man from his native 
country. 

If you asked one of the poor exiles in Siberia what 
was the most bitter portion of his lot, I take it that 
he would reply that it was the recollection of a happy 
home, with the certainty "that he will return no 
more nor see his native country ! " 

So brethren it is with the exile of sin. At first we 
may not perceive that it is a banishment. At first 
the broad and the narrow roads often lie seemingly 
side by side, and even appear to lead in the same 
direction, only gradually do they diverge, until at 
length they are running to diverse ends. 

The little sins which first beguile men, the easily 



86 



THE EXILE OF SIN. 



spoken untruth, the careless words, the lax conduct, 
allure from the path of uprightness in such pleasant 
guise, and are so seemingly harmless. But if these 
slips from virtue be not repented of and retrieved, 
soon will the legions of evil, as grim guards, take their 
place at our side, hurrying on to the " land whither 
they lead them captive." 

Look, then, at King Shallum, in his Egyptian exile, 
as a type of those unhappy ones upon whose features 
debauchery, avarice, cunning, have only too legibly 
written " this is my slave." 

Where are they going, these brothers and sisters 
of ours ? Eouse yourselves from the selfish sleep of 
indifference which lazily yawns " am I my brother's 
keeper % " Rouse yourselves to ask, where is this sad 
procession going ? 

You may read almost daily in some little paragraph 
of a paper (as if the matter were scarce worth record- 
ing) of the detection of some foul murder, or discovery 
of some gigantic fraud. Will you turn away with a 
shrug and thank God that you are not as that mur- 
derer or forger ? Will you not pause to think with 
terror, ay and with sorrow, of the many steps of sin, 
the persistent beckoning of temptations that have been 
seducing your brother (who was once a little innocent 
child) to this deadly crime ? 



THE EXILE OE SIN. 



87 



If Dives speaks from the place of torment, if he 
sees his brethren too closely treading in his steps, 
what could his words be but an echo of the text 
" Weep ye not for the dead, neither bemoan him, but 
weep sore for him that goeth away, for he shall return 
no more, nor see his native country" ? " No more" 
must it be so ? Thank God not so, " while there is 
life there is hope," the way of penitence is still open, 
the gates of Paradise still unbarred, the Father still 
longing to welcome the exile home ! Oh, brothers, 
remember this for those whom you know to be in sin, 
remember there is still a hope of their return. So, 
w T hile we grieve for the sin, let us pray, and pray 
again for the sinner. 

If we might but resolve never more to be indiffer- 
ent to the story of another's sin, never to make it the 
subject of mere gossip, but rather to remember the 
prophet's pathetic cry " weep sore for him that goeth 
away." 

You, by God's all merciful grace, beloved, are, I 
trust, in the way of life, journeying to the Blessed 
Home, pray then and labour for those, your brothers 
and sisters, whom Satan is leading away captive. 

Life and death are in the issue, the soul's happiness 
and its Maker's honour; raise your hands then, like 
Moses, in intercession for those so sorely pressed, 



88 



THE EXILE OF SIN. 



stretch them forth to draw, if you may, some wan- 
derers back to their " native country." 

Your hands ! Ah, is it not the Redeemer Himself 
Who acts through you, pleading in your prayers, pre- 
vailing, if you are faithful, by His Passion and His 
Cross ? His blood can wash the blackest stain white, 
His love can seek unwearyingly for the lost sheep, 
His patient, gentle voice never ceases to plead with 
the erring to repent and turn back to His Father's 
house, back to the Good Shepherd's arms. 

" Lift up, then, lift up Thy bleeding hands 0 Lord, 
Unseal the cleansing tide, 
We have no shelter from our sins 
But in Thy wounded side." 



XII. 



THE TWO WITNESSES. 

" And I will give power unto my two witnesses and 
they shall prophesy. And when they shall have fin- 
ished their testimony the Beast that ascendeth out of 
the bottomless pit shall make war against them and 
kill them, and their dead bodies shall lie in the street 
of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and 
Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified. 

" And after three and a half days the Spirit of life 
entered into them, and they stood upon their feet, and 
great fear fell on all who saw them. And they 
ascended up to heaven in a cloud, and their enemies 
beheld them." 

—Revelation xi. 3, 7, 8, 11. 

One element of great value in the Book of Beve- 
lation is the vivid portrayal of righteousness and 
iniquity, of the power of Satan, and of the supreme 
power of God. 

Summed up at last in one tremendous vision we 
behold the Great City of this world, Babylon, the 
type of Evil, destroyed, and the City of God, the New 
Jerusalem of Righteousness, triumphant. 



DO 



THE TWO WITNESSES. 



The eleventh chapter gives in rough outline the 
subject which is worked out in the rest of the Book. 

The first two verses of this chapter speak of the 
Temple of God, its altar and worshippers, which sig- 
nify the Church of Christ where it reigns in glory, 
and also in the loyal hearts of His faithful people. 
Next in the order of description come the Outer 
Court, and the Holy City, types of the Militant 
Church, which is still subject to suffering, oppression, 
and war, from foes without and traitors within. 

Opposed to the Holy City stands the Great City, 
the City of this world, symbol of the hearts and 
actions of the wicked, the infidel, the indifferent (who 
are called Gentiles), who despise and tread under foot 
the Holy City. 

Now it is, let us notice, to these "Gentiles," to 
those living in wilful sin, " who hath done despite to 
the Spirit of Grace," that the two Witnesses are sent 
to prophesy. 

"Who then, or what are these two Witnesses ? Let 
us reverently seek to discover the meaning of their 
persons and their office. 

In the fifth verse it is said that " fire proceedeth out 
of their mouth to slay those who hurt them," and this 
statement recalls to mind the scene on Carmel when 
fire was called down by the Prophet Elijah. 



THE TWO WITNESSES. 



91 



Again in the sixth verse we read " They have power 
to turn the water into blood and to smite the earth 
with all plagues," and this reminds us of Moses wit- 
nessing for God in Egypt. 

Remembering then the prophecy of Malachi, 
"behold, I send you Elijah the prophet before the 
great and dreadful day of the Lord," remembering 
that Moses and Elijah were the privileged Old Testa- 
ment Saints who appeared on the Mount of Transfig- 
uration, it seems to me most probable that these two 
Witnesses may be regarded, if not as Moses and 
Elijah in person, yet at least as their successors, who, 
in every age discharge the functions of those holy 
men. 

What then was Moses if not the Giver of the Law, 
and what was Elijah if not the Father of the Prophets ? 

Now the Law and the Prophets were God's two 
chosen witnesses in Old Testament days and they are 
so still. 

The Law of God is His witness within the heart, 
telling man what is right and what is wrong, for " by 
the law is the knowledge of sin." And the voice of 
the Law of God, speaking in the heart and witnessing 
for Him there, is called Conscience. 

Prophecy on the other hand is God's witness from 
without the soul ; the Church of Christ and her pro- 



92 



THE TWO WITNESSES. 



phetic ministry of the Holy Scriptures, the Holy Sac- 
raments and all the visible means of grace, which may 
be called God's abiding Prophet in the world. 

These two Witnesses then, the inner voice of Con- 
science, and the external voice of Grace, are empow- 
ered by our Heavenly Father to prophesy to men 
in every age; upon them the office and power of 
the Law and the Prophets descend by perpetual 
entail. 

The witness of conscience and the witness of grace, 
do we reverence and heed these representatives of the 
Almighty upon earth as we should ? 

"These" S. John continues, "are the two olive 
trees, and the two candlesticks standing before the 
God of the earth," words that manifestly refer back 
to the great prophecy of Zechariah. They are the 
two Divine Lights given to illuminate our souls from 
within and from without. 

Conscience is then the light on the prow of the 
vessel, revealing the course to be steered, Grace the 
lighthouse on the shore, guiding to the true Haven. 
And these lamps of heaven are fed from the oil of 
their divine consecration, from the overflowing grace 
of the Holy Spirit 

" Whose blessed unction from above 
Is comfort, light, and fire of love." 



THE TWO WITNESSES. 



93 



How are these divine Witnesses treated by man- 
kind ? " The Beast that ascendeth out of the bottom- 
less pit shall make war against them, and shall kill 
them ! " 

The Beast or Wild-beast here spoken of means, in 
the first instance, that fierce heathen world power 
which, in ancient and modern days, in Borne or in 
China, persecutes the Church, and would have her 
children's blood. But it also typifies the fierce and 
brutal animal nature in man, which even in Christian 
and civilized nations sometimes leaps forth with ter- 
rific and incredible ferocity, and in the flames of a 
Commune, or in the torture of a negro, reveals " what 
is in man " at his worst. 

And so it is that the Witnesses of God, Conscience 
and Grace, deliver their message too often to unheed- 
ing hearts, men refuse to listen, they follow their own 
passions and desires, and the Wild-beast Sin within 
grows bolder, and 

" Like a lion creeping nigher 
Glares at one who nods and winks 
Beside a slowly dying fire," 

and at last springing on the Witnesses of God stifles 
their voices, and the soul seems " dead in trespasses 
and sins." 

"Their dead bodies lie in the street of the 



94 



THE TWO WITNESSES. 



City which is spiritually called Sodom and Egypt." 
Brethren, as we walk through the streets of some 
great city, and note the numbers of either sex who are 
going with a light heart to sin against Conscience and 
Grace, can we not see in fancy these two slain Wit- 
nesses, lying trodden under foot, with their pale faces 
pleading up to heaven against the world ? 

" They that dwell on the earth," writes S. John, 
" shall rejoice over them . . . because these two 
Witnesses tormented them that dwell on the earth." 
Of course they did, for Conscience and Grace, while 
living voices, will not let the world be happy in its 
sins, and so, when hardened in evil, it rejoices that 
those misgivings are no longer felt. 

This, brethren, is a terrible picture, we should have 
scarcely dared to paint it for ourselves. JSTot only, 
(and it is the Apostle of love who writes this) not only 
may wilful and persistent sin deaden and eventually 
stifle the voices of Conscience and Grace, but the sin- 
ner may actually come to that depth of degradation 
that he glories in his shame, and rejoices that he 
experiences no hint of self-reproach ! 

And yet there is an even more startling conclusion. 

The World, the Flesh, and the Devil cannot really 
kill God's witnesses ! In due time " the Spirit of life 
comes to them and they stand upon their feet." But 



THE TWO WITNESSES. 



95 



they no longer witness for God to men upon earth, 
" they ascend to heaven in a cloud," and there shall 
witness to God against man, when he comes before 
that dread Judgment Bar. 

Let us pray then for the world, Beloved, that the 
deaf ears may be opened, the hard hearts warmed, so 
that this dread catastrophe may be averted, and God's 
Witnesses witness for Him to man's salvation and not 
to his condemnation. 

So reverence, then, the voice of Grace, which would 
instruct and strengthen you through the Church and 
her Sacraments, so heed the inner whispers of Con- 
science, which would teach God's law in the heart, 
that, when they shall have finished their testimony to 
you here upon earth, they may be Witnesses for you 
in Heaven, " in the hour of death and in the Day of 
Judgment." 



XIII. 



THE WAY OF LIFE. 

Jesus said, "I am the Way, the truth, and the life." 

— S. John xiv. 6. 

In a conversation once with a person of sincere 
and lofty Christian character and of rare intellectual 
gifts, it was related to me how an eminent man of 
science (Professor Tyndall) had been impressed with 
my friend's suggestions on this text. There are some 
people and some ages which seem instinctively to 
realize and to magnify the first clause of this verse. 
They hold to the way which runs down the long 
course of history, the Christian Way of the Holy 
Church, its Ordinances and Sacraments; and they are 
right, for it is the Way ordained by Christ for His 
children to walk in : it is God's " Undefiled Wa}\" 
But these have failed equally to grasp the full beauty 
and significance of Divine Truth, and so thus do not 
go on unto perfection. Others again pursue abstract 
truth almost as an idol, and worship that ; and so far 
as it is indeed truth which they worship, that too 



THE WA Y OF LIFE. 



97 



leads them up a line of light to bow down at the feet 
of Him who says, " I am the Truth." 

A third class confine their faith and their interest 
to the pursuit of a high and noble ideal of Moral Life. 
For them also the perfect Pattern and Architype of 
Holiness should close the vista of their vision — for 
Jesus says, u I am the Life." 

In Him, then, the three Ideals meet and are 
blended in due proportion, and in Him alone. Too 
often, in ourselves, one or other has predominance to 
the exclusion or subordination of the others. And 
yet, we cannot attain to fulness of the Christian 
Character without a due proportion of the three ; the 
Way, the Truth, and the Life. Now, there is most 
need to emphasize those requirements which are prone 
to be ignored or disparaged by the spirit of the age. 
In the ninth century, for instance, there was a sore 
need of Life and Truth : in the present age it is 
the "Way which is apt to be forgotten. And by " the 
Way," I mean that which was understood as Christ's 
Way in the New Testament, the Corporate Life, Doc- 
trine, Worship, and Sacraments of the Christian 
Church. S. Paul persecuted "that Way," Aquilla 
and Priscilla " instructed A polios in the Way of God 
more perfectly." By u walking in the Way of Christ " 
would have been understood, by the Apostles and 
7 



98 



THE WA Y OF LIFE. 



their disciples, for a child, as a matter of course, to 
be brought to Jesus and admitted a member of the 
Christian Family by the Sacrament of Holy Bap- 
tism. Then, as a real though youthful member of the 
Church or Family of Christ, he would be taught to 
pray, to believe, to do right and speak the truth, as 
a Christian should : he would be shown how to go 
quietly and regularly on in attendance on public 
worship, to Confirmation, and the Holy Communion, 
and to continue in the devout use of the means of 
Grace and the practice of virtue, unto his life's end. 

That would be an ordinary, normal picture of 
Christian life in the Apostolic and early ages of the 
Church. Why is it not so now ? Because it has been 
forgotten that the Way is just as much an element of 
Christian progress as the Truth and the Life. Let us 
think of some of the modern and popular causes which 
keep people out of Christ's Holy Way, which in plain 
words hinders them from becoming regular worship- 
pers in Church, and joining in the full religious life of 
the Parish. 

1. Foremost must be placed the popular home 
teaching about religion in the present age. 

Contrast the natural law of family life, with the 
way in which in so many cases children are taught to 
regard their relations to the spiritual family of Christ. 



THE WA Y OF LIFE. 



99 



The child is taught its own name, to know and 
love its parents, to be fond and proud of its home, to 
live a good life, to work for the family. As it grows 
it learns naturally to bear more and more of the 
family responsibilities, and to care more and more for 
the family's good name and honor. 

In religious matters the same children are reared 
upon precisely contrary principles. They are allowed 
to grow up without any sense of duty or responsi- 
bility, under the mistaken idea that they are too 
young to go to church and enter into worship, as if 
Christ had never said, " Out of the mouth of babes 
and sucklings Thou hast perfected praise." 

Then it is assumed that, without the parents' careful 
training in habits of prayer and Church-going, and, 
too often, even without their example, at some indefi- 
nite time, in some unexplained wa} 7 , they are to know 
how to choose for themselves " whether they will 
join the Church or not!" Nothing can equal the 
insane folly of such a method, which is so absolutely 
contradictory alike to the Bible's teaching and to 
common sense. 

What do you think of those parents who treat their 
children's education on the same principles, and let 
them run wild unless they choose for themselves to go 
to school ? We know that in nine cases out of ten it 



100 



THE WA Y OF LIFE. 



is just the lack of the early mental training which 
will make study distastely to the youth, and, when 
you bid him choose for himself, he will most certainly 
not choose school ! 

Almighty God never thus acts in direct contradic- 
tion to the laws of life. His law in Nature and in 
Grace is the same. Starve a child, and you must not 
expect a miracle of growth ; treat Religion as if it 
were no part of your child's real life till it is thirteen 
or fourteen years old, and you have no right to expect 
a miraculous awakening to its importance then. 

Christ founded a real spiritual family, the Christian 
Church, and He speaks of Baptism as the birth into 
that family, the child thenceforth being the child of 
Christ, and member of His family. 

Therefore it is to be taught " so soon as it shall 
be able to learn " (just like the child of the human 
family), what are its home duties as Avell as its family 
privileges, and to look forward to Confirmation and 
the Holy Communion as simply additional blessings 
and helps in the family life. 

ISTow it is surely to quit this vantage ground of 
Christian birth, parentage, and association, it is to 
degrade your child to the condition of the Pagan to 
whom the Gospel has not been preached, to let him 
suppose, even for a moment, that there is a choice 



THE WA Y OF LIFE. 



101 



to be made later in life whether he will live the 
Christian life or not. Let us, then, utterly banish from 
our homes this grotesque and unchristian system of 
religious training, the product of Calvinism and 
Eevivalism, and return to the good old Way of the 
Apostles. 

2. Other hindrances must be more briefly mentioned. 

a. The utterly misleading way of speaking of Con- 
firmation as "joining the Church " instead of the Rite 
for strengthening the Children of the Church. 

h. "What I venture to describe as the Chromolitho- 
graph view of religion. As some merchants bribe 
their customers to take a certain quantity of goods by 
the gift of a brilliant "Chromo," framed and glazed, 
so some seem to think it right to teach the young to 
attend Church, and even to receive Confirmation, for 
the social advantages of the step, the popularity of the 
clergyman, the beauty of the music, even the newness 
and " stylishness " of the church itself! Any such 
teaching must inevitably lead to the loss of all sense 
of duty and responsibility in the worship of God, and 
degrade the Church into the mere concert room or 
lecture hall. 

c. The opposite tendency to regard religion as 
ascetic and gloomy, something which is very good for 
us but very nasty to take, and consequently to be 



102 



THE WA Y OF LIFE. 



put off as long as possible, and taken, in small doses ! 
I once heard an aged and much-loved priest speak of 
this false view of religion to the young, and then 
appeal to their own knowledge of himself. " I am," 
he said, "a happy man, as you know, and I know 
that the only thing that brings real unhappiness is sin, 
and that religion it is that makes my life bright and 
joyful." 

d. Another hindrance to the Christian life is the 
want of plain teaching of the doctrines of Chris- 
tianity; the idle notion that people will learn these by 
the light of nature. Hence numbers of our young 
people grow up wholly ignorant of the First Principles 
of the Doctrines of Christ, and, instead of learning 
from the accredited and instructed teachers, too often 
become the prey of the crude dogmatism of some half- 
educated revivalist, or are swept off their feet by the 
confident scepticism of some Ingersoll or Watts. 

e. A very common and shallow objection raised 
when you urge men to enter upon the full duties and 
privileges of Christian life, is that the " Life " is every- 
thing ; and that provided a man aims to lead a good 
life it does not matter what is his belief. It is well to 
remind such that all conduct rests upon belief ; a man 
only acts in a particular manner because of his belief 
in the wisdom or tightness of that action, and that, 



THE WAY OF LIFE. 



103 



ultimately, it is according to what a man believes in 
that the tone of his life will be high or low. 

f. Lastly some conscientious persons shrink from 
Confirmation and the Holy Communion, because they 
plead that they wish to understand everything about 
Christianity before taking so responsible a step. 

Surely, brethren, this is as if you were to refuse to. 
go into the water until you could swim ! Or as if you 
were to decline to take passage on the ocean vessel 
until you had mastered the science of navigation, and 
the principles not only of the ship's construction but 
of the regulation of the life on board. It is enough 
for the wise traveller to be assured by competent wit- 
nesses, that the ship is a sound vessel, well officered, 
and that, since her launching, she has continued to 
make successful voyages carrying multitudes safely to 
their desired haven. So if any such are here, linger- 
ing doubtfully, let me appeal to you by my own 
experience of over forty years on board. The Ship of 
Christ's Church has voyaged on in safety for nineteen 
centuries, she has borne countless souls over the waves 
of this troublesome world to the shores of the blessed. 
Try the Christian life in its fulness, fear not nor hesi- 
tate, and you then of your own heart's experience 
will know the truth, and " the truth shall make you 
free." 



XIV. 



" THE BLOOD OF CHKIST." 

"How mucli more shall the blood of Christ, Who 
through the Eternal Spirit offered Himself without 
spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to 
serve the Living God." 

— Heb. ix. 14. 

On this Sunday we are standing on the threshold 
of the most solemn season of all the Christian Year, 
the entrance to Passiontide. 

" The Koyal Banners forward go," but Jesus goes 
before them, onwards to His traitor City and the cruel 
Judgment Hall, onwards to endure u the contradiction 
of sinners," the betrayal and forsaking, the scourge 
and crown of thorns, onwards to the bitter end on 
which His eyes are set, where on the heights of Cal- 
vary " the Cross even now shines forth " through the 
gathering shadows of the Passion " with mystic 
glow ! " 

On next Sunday we accompany our Lord in heart 
into Jerusalem, we shall feel with Him and stand by 
His side on each day of the Holy "Week, and it will 



' THE BLOOD OF CHRIST. 



105 



not then be so easy to observe the Passion and the 
Cross as a whole. Just as from a height at a little 
distance you can see the entire shape, size, and appear- 
ance, of a town which is lost wdien you enter the streets, 
so perhaps we may look at the Cross of Christ, and 
gain a general lesson of its teaching to-day, before we 
come closer and have more to see. 

Think first of the wondrous power of the Cross. 
Jesus had said, " I, if I be lifted up from the earth, 
shall draw all men unto Me," yet how unlikely did 
this prediction seem when He hung on that small 
wooden Cross, seen only by the crowd around Him, 
and invisible beyond a very limited distance. Yet 
these words have age by age steadilv been fulfilling 
themselves. When S. Paul cried, " God forbid that 
I should glory save in the Cross," the horizon had 
been greatly extended. 

And since the time of S. Paul generation after gen- 
eration of faithful servants of Jesus have raised the 
Cross a little higher, and held it up before the eyes of 
men, and each generation as it passed away has 
become a living stone built into that glorious base 
of holy souls, on which the Crucified wills that His 
throne shall be exalted. And now the Cross of Christ 
is visible above the whole world's horizon, and on Good 
Friday it is in some sense preached in every region of 



106 



"THE BLOOD OF CHRIST." 



the earth. Its gracious invitation draws all men from 
the snows of Siberia to the deserts of Australia, from 
the great towns of Europe, and America, and Asia, 
from the forests of Africa, and the Islands of the Sea, 
"draws all men unto Him." 

And what is the meaning of the Crucifixion ? "What 
is the death of Jesus Christ on that first Good Friday 
to us that it should exercise so mighty a power over 
men? What is the meaning of those words of Scrip- 
ture we so often have upon our lips, that " Jesus died 
to save sinners," that His Precious Blood " cleanseth 
from all sin," and " shall purge our conscience from 
dead works to serve the Living God" ? He died that 
we might live? How does the death of Jesus, the 
shedding of His Precious Blood, take away the sins 
of the world ? How is it that through the Cross of 
Christ alone we obtain remission of our sins, and the 
gift of eternal life ? 

Dear friends, I think we sometimes use these won- 
derful words of the Bible about the " Blood of Jesus " 
without considering their meaning ; or if we do think, 
we puzzle ourselves by trying to think of all the great 
work of the Atonement at once, instead of clearly 
distinguishing the several great truths which are 
bound up in that one word, the several distinct lessons 
which the Cross has to teach. 



'THE BLOOD OF CHRIST" 



107 



To-night, then, I put aside altogether one side of 
the truth — that Jesus " suffered as an example that 
we should walk in His Footsteps," that He on the 
Cross drew for us a perfect pattern of self-sacrifice 
and of obedience. 

But I would ask how did the Atoning Sacrifice of 
Calvary, the shedding of the Blood, cleanse the sinner, 
so that only through that Blood-shedding can we hope 
for cleansing and forgiveness ? 

What was that wondrous eternal Sacrifice for sin ? 
"Was it not this ? From Adam till the end of the 
world all men are sinners, that is, they are one of a 
guilty race, and they each commit some sins. " The 
wages of sin is death," and man had been earning 
these wages regularly week by week. No one man or 
woman, members of this guilty race, could offer' any 
real satisfactory reparation, or bear any sufficient 
punishment, because, even if they offered their whole 
future life to God, it was only what was due and could 
not wipe out the guilt of the human race, or the past 
sins of that soul. 

In the event of any national act of violent wrong- 
doing or oppression, such as the slave robberies in 
Africa, or the opium wars in China, no individual act 
of reparation could be accepted as adequate, for the 
man, however conscientious, would but speak and act 



108 



' THE BLOOD OF CHRIST." 



for himself. It needs a national act of reparation, 
and that, while it may clear the nation, could not do 
away with past guilt. 

Now this is the wonderful truth about our Blessed 
Lord Jesus Christ — that when He was born of the 
Blessed Virgin He took man's nature upon Him (sin 
only excepted). He thus united human nature to His 
Divine Person and became Perfect Man. Now what 
was He? He represented, not one man here and 
there, but all men. He became one with, and was 
the Kepresentative of, all who ever had lived or who 
ever should live ! 

As a member of a representative assembly represents 
a great number of people, and they act through and 
speak by him, so our Blessed Lord was the Pattern 
Man, representing all men of every age and race. 

When Edward III. captured Calais, he consented 
to spare the city on condition that ten prominent citi- 
zens should be chosen and led forth to execution as 
representatives of the whole population. This is a 
very slight and imperfect picture of the wondrous 
Atonement on the Cross. 

There " Jesus," as the Pattern Representative Man, 
" through the Eternal Spirit offered Himself without 
spot to God" as the world's Sin-offering. So that 
when He was raised on the Cross all mankind hung 



"THE BLOOD OF CHRIST" 



109 



there in Him. When His Blood flowed it was as the 
blood of all men beating in and through His heart, 
only pure from all sin, and ennobled from union with 
the Godhead. 

It was thus the voluntary, self-inflicted, punishment 
of the whole world borne in Him its pure Representa- 
tive, offered for every sin that ever had been or ever 
should be committed. A full and perfect Satisfaction 
because He was a Perfect Representative and of per- 
fect purity. So Jesus made a perfect reparation for 
all sin, won a full and free forgiveness for all. 

That perfect satisfaction which He made to God 
we, being incorporated into His mystical Body in 
Holy Baptism, and remaining in Him by repentance 
and faith, share; when we are in Christ we have 
made that satisfaction in Him our Head, and so can 
claim of right through Him, through the outpouring 
of that priceless Blood, the free and full forgiveness, 
" and purge our consciences from dead works." 

So "in Him we have Redemption — even the for- 
giveness of sins." 

But this was not all. 

On the Cross man offered to God a perfect Satis- 
faction for sin, which gave the right of free pardon to 
all repentant souls. 

What did God do more in return ? 



110 



'THE BLOOD OF CHRIST: 



Mankind was cleansed and pardoned — but as when 
one has been sick of a long fever, not only must the 
fever be cured, but new health and strength given 
back to the patient, so was it with sin-sick mankind. 

The heart of man was weak, his blood thin, his 
limbs shrunken, how was new life to come ? Through 
new blood ! 

And this is the other precious power and gift of 
the Blood of Jesus. First, to cleanse and pardon for 
the past ; secondly, to give new life for the future. 

" The gift of God is eternal life." Yes ; but how is 
dying man to receive it? "Through Jesus Christ 
our Lord, through the Blood which is the Life," the 
Blood of Jesus which is the life of the world ! 

This is the gift. Down through the spotless Hu- 
manity of Jesus this gift of eternal life is poured to 
cleansed, pardoned, self-convicted man. This is the 
mystery of Baptism — that we are therein made very 
members incorporate in the mystical Body of Christ 
in order that " the Precious Blood, which is the life " 
of the soul, may flow in and circulate through our 
sin- shrunken veins and failing heart. 

That circulation, begun in Baptism, is continued 
through the gift of the Holy Spirit, and the receiving 
fresh and fuller supplies of that Precious Blood, in 
the Holy Communion. 



"THE BLOOD OF CHRIST." 



Ill 



And this is the deadly work of Sin upon the soul — 
that it ties the limb, and prevents the Precious Blood 
from renewing life. Where Sin strangles for long, 
and keeps out the life blood, the limb mortifies and 
becomes a danger to the whole body. Hence, " if 
thine hand offend thee cut it off " sooner than that 
the body should perish. Hence the awful end of 
Pharaoh who hardened himself again and again by 
disobedience until at last came on the terrible retri- 
bution — spiritual disease of the heart ! Repentance, 
then, is the untying of the ligature of evil, the receiv- 
ing forgiveness through the Sacrifice once offered, 
and the fresh inflow of eternal life pulsing from the 
Sacred Heart. 

Therefore we praise the Precious Blood because it 
won forgiveness, because too, through Holy Baptism, 
through Grace, through the Holy Communion, that 
Blood " which is life" is poured into our souls. 

And then, dear friends, comes the last step, the 
highest meaning of Atonement. Cleansed from past 
sin through the Precious Blood, and gifted with new 
life, what is the high end for which thus we are 
restored ? 

At-one-ment — Communion with God ! Through 
Jesus, the Spotless, Perfect Man, new life has come — 
through Him only have we access to the Father, and 



112 



"THE BLOOD OF CHRIST." 



can once more speak with God face to face ; for we 
speak through Him, and pray acceptably to God 
because it is " through Jesus Christ our Lord." 

When we close our prayers with those little words, 
as when we join in celebrating the Holy Eucharist, 
what do we do? We touch a note of the Divine 
Organ of the Incarnation, the manuals of which are 
in the Militant Church on earth, but the golden pipes 
rising up through the Church Triumphant into the 
Heaven of Heavens, breathe out their music before 
the throne of God ! 



XY. 



THE SATISFACTION OF THE RISEN LIFE. 

" When I awake up after Thy likeness I shall be satis- 
fied with it." 

— Psalm xvii., v. 16. 

The Bible, dear friends, is like a long picture gal- 
lery on the opposite walls of which the portraits of 
the good and bad citizens of God's world hang facing 
one another. 

At the entrance you see the great picture of the 
Creation set in its perfect frame, and opposite Para- 
dise Lost and Creation marred by Sin. 

And at the extreme end there is an awful scene of 
a vast and ruined City, the smoke of whose torment 
goes up for ever and ever ; and over that is written 
" Babylon the Great " the City of this world " is fallen, 
is fallen," while opposite again in dazzling loveliness 
is the Heavenly City, The New Jerusalem, and the 
New Heavens and the New Earth. 

And from one end to the other hang pictures of 
citizens of either City, of the Children of this World, 
8 



114 THE SATISFACTION OF THE RISEN LIFE. 

and the Children of Light, from Cain and righteous 
Abel, to Judas and S. John. 

There is no doubtfulness, or hesitation in the lan- 
guage of the Bible about men and women, and their 
doings, it is indeed " quick and powerful, sharper than 
any two-edged sword," a discerner of the thoughts 
and intents of the heart, and so it can sever the 
wicked from the just, those who are men after God's 
heart, from those who are not, right from wrong, as 
we never dare for ourselves. 

The group of Psalms from which my text is taken 
is an instance of this. 

In the 14th David describes the fool who denies 
God, the children of this world, in the 15th he draws 
a picture of the righteous man " who shall rest upon 
God's holy hill." 

The 16th Psalm goes on to express David's confi- 
dence in God, and prophesies our Lord's Resurrection ; 
in the 17th he, as the representative of the righteous, 
cries out for help against the prosperous power of the 
wicked, and, in the last verse, he contrasts in triumph 
his own glorious hope of resurrection joy with their 
" portion in this life." 

And to-day as we walk through this divine exhi- 
bition let us pause before these two pictures which 
David, taught by the Holy Ghost, has painted, the 



THE SATISFACTION OF THE RISEN LIFE. 115 

satisfaction of the "Children of this World" on one 
side — the satisfaction of " the Children of Light " on 
the other. 

To understand the true meaning of these two great 
sacred illustrations we must remember that man is 
and ever has been made up of two parts, an earthly 
and a heavenly. His earthly or "carnal mind" is 
that part of him which he shares with other animals, 
his heavenly or "spiritual mind" is his immortal soul, 
breathed into him by God and stamped with his 
Maker's image. 

The lower part or " natural man " has, like other 
animals, natural desires, for food, for sleep, for com- 
fort, for enjoyment, for power — all good in so far as 
they are controlled and guided by the higher nature 
in obedience to God's laws. 

But at the Fall the lower nature — the animal 
appetite — for what w T as good to eat and to add to 
self-importance, won a victory over the "spiritual 
mind," marred the image of God, and reduced men 
to live after their mere carnal desires, as S. Paul says, 
like "natural brute beasts." See now in this great 
picture of David's what men have come to. 

They say in their hearts, " There is no God," 
They say, " Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we 
die." They seek only for " their portion in this life." 



116 THE SATISFACTION OF THE RISEN LIFE. 

Esau is .there as the very type and patron of these 
poor animal men, selling his birthright for a dinner, 
fit only to receive as his blessing the promise of the 
fatness of the earth, and success as a hunter and a 
warrior. 

Dear friends, this is no fancy picture. Esau was 
not the first, and he certainly is not the last, of those 
who have lived for nothing but to gain good and 
pleasant things for themselves or their children, with- 
out a thought of anything beyond. How look at this 
picture and ask, Can I say, if I make that my choice 
and desire nothing more than a good portion in this 
life — can I say, " I shall be satisfied " ? Satisfied ! 
Tell me how many of those who spend their lives to 
gain this world's money and pleasure really do gain 
them? How many have toiled, aye, and sinned, to 
seize the prize of success in politics, learning, or trade 
and never succeed, or find the tempting fruit turn to 
ashes in their mouths ? 

And of those whom the world counts its successful 
men, the great generals, the millionaires, the eminent, 
the well to do, how many are really satisfied with 
their portion % Ask the victorious king of old who 
wept for more worlds to conquer, ask the Dives of 
ancient or modern days who has piled up a colossal 
fortune on the ruins of his constitution, and would 



THE SATISFACTION OF THE RISEN LIFE. 117 

now give half that he possesses, aye, more than half, 
for the health of a laboring* man. Even in the purest 
and most innocent earthly enjoyments is there lasting 
satisfaction ? Ask those who have learned to know 
and love the presence, and care, and teaching of a 
dear friend and pastor, when they hear that " it has 
seemed good to the Holy Ghost " to call him to labour 
in another part of the Master's Vineyard, in order 
that we may not rest in too perfect a satisfaction. 

Satisfaction ! There can be no such thing merely 
in this world's good things, and enjoyments. For 
why? There is an infinite in man which cannot be 
satisfied merely with the finite. The beasts may be 
satisfied with plenty to eat and drink because they 
have no higher nature ; but heap up all the pleasures 
and good things you like, try them all round, eat, 
drink, and be merry, in time you feel that you have a 
soul which is not, cannot be, satisfied, even with all 
the pleasures of all the spheres. That soul comes from 
God, is made for God, it can no more be lastingly sat- 
isfied with bodily pleasures, than any of us could be 
satisfied with the food of the cows or sheep. 

~No ; the soul rises up and writes indignantly over 
that picture, the picture of the portion of the children 
of this world, " Why spend your lives and labour for 
that which satisfieth not ? " Poor souls, they have 



118 THE SATISFACTION OF THE RISEN LIFE. 



their portion like Dives, in this life, or they have very 
small portions — in either case they are doomed to 
inevitable disappointment. 

May we all, then, turn from that miserable scene 
of failure to the other glorious picture opposite. 
There we see David, and David's Greater Son, in 
whom the Image of God was renewed on the fallen 
race, we see holy men of old and of later times press- 
ing onwards where sure hope doth thither lead them ! 
Each and all, dear brothers in Christ, who try humbly 
to serve Him, who do not live merely for this world, 
but for that also which is to come, each through the 
Divine Grace may cry out, " But as for me and my 
house, we will serve the Lord." 

There is satisfaction at last, for body and soul. 
And what is this satisfaction promised in Christ's 
name to the humble and true-hearted ? 

It is twofold : 

To behold God's Presence. How can we in our 
weakness understand this ? We know how God said 
even to Moses, " Thou canst not see My face, for 
there shall no man see Me and live." And Jesus said, 
" No man hath seen God at any time." All the vis- 
ions of the Almighty, as seen by the Prophets, are as 
a Glory and terrible Brightness, all that S. John dare 
speak of Him that sat on the Throne, is that He was 



THE SATISFACTION OF THE RISEN LIFE. 119 



to look upon as a Jasper and Sardine Stone, a bewil- 
dering vision of Glory. How can we picture to our- 
selves the satisfaction of this beholding ? 

Is it not thus? "Life," says a great poet — human 
life, — " like a dome of many coloured glass, stains the 
white radiance of eternity." From the life of God, 
from the ocean of eternity, our eyes turn blinded, as 
from the dazzling sheen of sun-burnished water, with 
but a vague impression of white, unbearable bright- 
ness. But upon the Human Life of Jesus Christ the 
sight can rest, and drink in its many coloured loveli- 
ness, and see there the Incarnation of Divine Perfec- 
tion rising up like the poet's glorious dome against the 
white radiance of eternity. " He that hath seen Me 
hath seen the Father," and so we find that it is upon 
"the Lamb in the midst of the throne, standing as 
it had been slain," that S. J ohn would lead us to gaze. 
This, then, is the hope, dear friends, the sight of which 
we read in the Gospels, " Then were the disciples glad 
when they saw the Lord." This is our hope, — to 
see the gentle, loving Saviour, who blessed the little 
children, and healed the sick, and bound up the broken 
hearted, and raised the dead ; to see Jesus who " died 
for our sins" and "rose again for our justification," 
Jesus, who all through our life protects us and would 
lead us to heaven. 



120 THE SATISFACTION OF THE RISEN LIFE. 



" 0 joy al] joys beyond, 

To see the Lamb who died, 
And count each sacred wound 

In Feet and Hands and Side ; 
To give to Him the Praise 

Of every triumph won, 
And sing through endless days 

The great things He hath done." 

This is the satisfaction to behold God's Presence 
" in the Face of Jesus Christ." 

But this does not exhaust the treasures of our hope. 
There flows forth also a consequence of this vision 
to bathe the soul not only in outward but in perfect 
inward Peace. 

"What says S. John ? " We shall be like Him, for 
we shall see Him as He is." 

Not only to see God on His Throne, but to be like 
Him : that is to see His likeness perfected in our 
hearts. Dear friends, what a wonderful mystery is 
this of which S. John speaks, the process which is 
daily going on within us. Christ is being formed 
within us, and we are being transformed into His 
Image from glory to glory. If we be living in a state 
of grace, this is the process : we fight with sin and 
purify ourselves even as He is pure, we become more 
gentle, more truthful, more honest, more brave, more 
faithful, better parents, better children, better friends, 



THE SATISFACTION OF THE RISEN II FE. 121 

better neighbors, better citizens, year by year we 
become more like Christ ! 

It is a wondrous double operation, in which we are 
" fellow workers with God." First we must purify 
the soul by repentance from sin that we may be able 
to "see God," and then, when we see Him, His Image 
is reflected in the retina of the soul, and we become 
like Him. The eye of the soul must be single and 
pure that it may receive ever more perfectly God's 
Likeness. 

Oh, Brothers, what a wondrous hope is this ! What 
is the root of our dissatisfaction here ? Is it not our 
own imperfection ? No one but a fool or a madman 
can be satisfied with himself, in what he is, or in what 
he might have been. And although the Image of 
God is renewed in us, and year by year the Holy 
Spirit would aid us to perfect that likeness to our 
Lord by the crucifixion of our sinful nature, and the 
feeding our souls by prayer and the Sacraments, 
yet still the holiest souls on earth cannot be satis- 
fied with their growth in grace. But the satis- 
faction shall come, when the eye of the soul is puri- 
fied to behold the Lord of Glory, and the soul itself 
has grown clear and pure, like a still lake that may 
mirror perfectly the Divine Likeness. 

And when shall this consummation be ? At " the 



122 THE SATISFACTION OF THE RISEN LIFE. 

Eesurrection unto eternal life." Now in the night of 
doubt and sorrow we see His Presence but through a 
glass, darkly, and in our tempted and imperfect state 
we can trace but the dim outlines of His Image: and 
soon we shall pass onwards to rest with the genera- 
tions before us in the bosom of the earth till the graves 
give up their dead. 

At that Day of the Resurrection when the trumpet 
shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible 
and we shall be changed — what an awakening ! 

No longer the faintness of dreams but the daylight 
vision of the King, Jesus, in His Beauty. 

" There no cloud nor passing vapour 
Dims the brightness of the air : 
Endless noonday, glorious noonday, 
For the Sun of suns is there." 

No longer in ourselves and those we love imperfec- 
tions and disappointment ; for then " we shall be like 
Him, for we shall see Him as He is," equally above 
and below, on the Throne of God, and in our hearts, 
we shall " behold the unutterable loveliness of His 
Presence," and awaking up after that Likeness, how 
can it be but that we shall be satisfied with it ? • 



XVI. 

AN EASTEE PAEABLK 

" Consider the lilies." 

— S. Matthew vi. 28. 

A Hindoo Buddhist is listening in rapt attention 
to the story of Calvary, and of the garden-grave. 
And little wonder, for the narrator is one who had 
seen it all — Mary of Magclala. 

She has told of finding the Empty Tomb, and then, 
as she turned, with her eyes dim with tears, of per- 
ceiving behind her a Figure which she had scarcely 
observed in her distress. She tells of the Master's 
question and her reply, and the Hindoo asks eagerly, 
64 What answer came to that ? " 

" Ah, friend, such an answer that my sadness 
turned joy as suddenly as grey is gold when the sun 
springs in glory. Oh, a dear word, spoke first to me, 
and after me to all, that all may always know He 
is the Lord, and Death is dead . . . and Christ 
alive, "Whom we saw nailed on the cruel cross. For 
while I lay there sobbing at His feet, the word He 



124 



AN EASTER PARABLE. 



spake — my Lord, my King, my Christ — was my name, 
Mary ! " 

So does Sir Edwin Arnold picture the revelations 
of the Resurrection, coming as a simple, pathetic, yet 
most joyful statement from one of the first genera- 
tion of the followers of Christ to a reverent and 
inquiring mind. 

And as we gather this Easter Morning with Mary 
Magdalen near the open grave, and, turning with her, 
would fain embrace the Feet of our Risen Master, and 
hail Him our Lord and our God, has He not, too, a 
message for each one of us ? As He called her 
" Mary," so He calls all His sheep by name, and has 
an Easter greeting for each. 

On the Easter Morning we stand on the threshold 
of the Invisible Home, we almost touch the Glorified 
Bod}^, we find a special meaning and power in the 
last grand article of the Creed — " I look for the Eesur- 
rection of the dead, and the life of the world to come! " 

And in thinking over this mysterious subject per- 
haps we perplex ourselves with doubts and questions : 
like the people of S. Paul's clay we ask, not scofimgly 
but in trembling wonder, " Oh Lord, who hast con- 
quered death, how are the dead raised up and with 
what body do they come ? " 

Let Christ help us to an answer by one of His own 



AN EASTER PARABLE. 



125 



beautiful parables of Nature, concerning those flowers 
with which our Easter Chancel and our Altar now 
shine — " Consider the lilies ! " The vegetable kingdom 
has undoubted^ some real message for us ; let us see 
what the lilies teach. 

" I believe in the Resurrection of the dead." Shall 
we then really rise again in another life ? " Consider 
the lilies," for they shine upon this Article of our 
faith, and make it bright and redolent of their fra- 
grance. 

A little boy, so the story is told, once planted the 
bulbs of Easter lilies, and watched with the keenest 
interest as they shot up green and strong, and opened 
their buds. He had been at the funerals of some of 
his youthful playmates and school friends, and it was 
his fancy to name the bulbs as he planted them for 
those whose bodies he had seen committed to the 
earth. There was Frank, and Tom, and Peter, and 
Maud, " who had the scarlet fever, " and " Darling 
was the baby ; she was only a little one when she 
died, but she was the cutest baby." And now in the 
Spring they stood in the window, like young saints 
waiting for their crowning. The sunlight reached 
and thrilled the whiteness of their close-shut walls ; 
it entered the shrine where the golden censers were, 
and made them glow. " They look," said Teddie, 



126 



AN EASTER PARABLE. 



" as if they would talk, and they must all preach 
an Easter sermon." 

On Easter Morn in g his mother suo-g-ested he 
should carry one of his pets to a poor old woman, 
who had lost her only son, and lived, half crazed with 
grief, in a lonely hovel in Witch's Hollow. Carefully 
the little fellow bore the tall plant with its crown of 
flowers, and entering the doorway with his fair, sunny 
face, said, " I have brought you Tom." " Tom," she 
cried, "ray Tom? Ah no, they took him away from 
me and buried him in the cold ground." "But," said 
Teddie, puzzled, " this is Tom. I put it in the ground, 
and it has grown and has all these buds and flowers; " 
then, after a pause, "your Tom, perhaps, is growing, 
too, and I guess it must be in Heaven that people 
blossom." 

"We are, again, perplexed, perhaps, by popular ideas 
of the Resurrection of the Body which seem to contra- 
dict reason and science. As if God would re-collect 
from the various elements into which the earthly 
body is dissolved, and recompose the very body, with 
the identical particles, which w^as lain in the grave. 
We know, on the contrary, that this body changes a 
little every day, and even during the earthly life does 
not long contain the same material particles. 

What is the teaching of the lilies? They say, 



AN EASTER PARABLE. 



127 



"What the bulb was to our present flowers, that is 
your earthly body to your Kesurrection Body." The 
pure and perfect whiteness of the blossom is the per- 
fect self-expression of that lily-life which in the bud 
was but in germ. We place in the ground " not the 
body that shall be, but God giveth to every seed his 
own body ; " " shall He not much more clothe you ? " 

For clearly the highest and truest view of our 
earthly bodies is that they are given to us as a means 
of self-expression. The body is the medium by which 
the spirit is manifested. All the deep thoughts of 
men were lost but for speech or writing. All the 
dreams of loveliest music wrere unheard but for hands 
and voice. So in the face of every good and great 
man something of himself is expressed. Think, then, 
w T hat it will be to look upon the Face of Christ ! 

The highest view, then, of the body is that it is the 
means of self-expression. The Resurrection will, then, 
be the rising of all that belongs to the essence and 
personality of each one of us. Here we see the body 
in its weakness, there we shall see it raised in glory, 
as the life in the bulb springs upwards and developes 
in the same lily-life, the same individual organism, 
yet into such new and glorious beauty. 

Once more consider the lilies. Some bulbs are ugly 
and wrinkled ; their bodies return to the earth in all 



128 



AN EASTER PARABLE. 



their weaknesses, but the life expresses itself anew in 
stem and flower. 

So when we think of the infirmities of others or of 
our own, of those who worry or vex us here, and are 
perplexed as to what our future relations with them 
will be, let us ask what it is that worries us in them. 
Is it not their infirmities ? Thus once more the para- 
ble from Nature helps us : " It is sown in corruption, 
it is raised in incorruption . . . sown a natural 
body, raised a spiritual body." As the lily flower 
bears no trace of the unsightliness of its former stage 
of existence, so will it be with the Risen Body. 

" Oh, how glorious and resplendent, 
Fragile body, thou shalt be, 
When endued with so much beauty, 
Full of health and strong and free." 

Lastly, it is true that life in the bulb and seed 
may be injured by the treatment which they receive, 
and the future life of plant and flower be in conse- 
quence less fair, or longer in coming to perfection. 

So there are solemn words in Holy Scripture about 
" entering into life halt or maimed, of being saved, 
yet so as by fire." What do they mean ? 

Surely that there is a real danger lest those who 
greatly misuse their powers here, even though peni- 
tent, may enter into that future life " maimed " of 



AN EASTER PARABLE. 



129 



those full capacities of the seed of manhood and 
womanhood, which was planted within them by 
Almighty God. Everything done or left undone 
here affects the character, and that self-expression of 
it which is hereafter to be declared. 

Surely this deepens our sense of the responsibility 
of our earthly life. It gives us a new desire to use 
every opportunity for self-culture, for self-restraint, 
for growth in grace, so that we may not injure our 
God-given nature here, and enter into that life "halt 
and maimed." Consider, then, this Easter Morning 
the message of the lilies ! 

As God so clothes them with more than royal 
splendour will He clothe you with immortality. As 
the outward unsightliness of bulb is transformed into 
radiant blossom, so will the natural infirmities be left 
in the grave and the body rise in glorj 7 . 

And yet, further, by the cultivation or neglect of 
our lives here, we may affect the powers of the spirit 
within us, and stain and maim the character. 

May God help us all so to hallow the temple of our 
bod} in this present life that hereafter we may find, 
through the grace of our Eisen Lord and the power 
of the quickening Spirit, in it a means of perfect self- 
expression, a body like unto His Glorious Body, when 
we rise to meet Him. 
9 



XVII. 



A PRESENT HOPE. 

"Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have 
entered into the heart of man, the things which God 
hath prepared for them that love Him. But God hath 
revealed them unto us by His Spirit." 

—I. Cor. ii. 9 10. 

S. Paul, in another passage, says that Christians 
"are saved by hope," and, in remarkably pictur- 
esque verses of the Epistle to the Hebrews, the Chris- 
tian's trust in the immutable promises of God is spoken 
of as the hope to which he clings in his doubts and 
distress, " which hope we have as an anchor of the 
soul, both sure and steadfast, which entereth into that 
within the veil." To this simile I would invite your 
careful consideration. . 

The sacred writer, then, descries in his mind the 
picture of a storm-beaten vessel, with spars broken 
and rigging and canvas rent from long conflict with 
wind and sea. Now, with a rag of sail set, she is flee- 
ing in through raging billows before the fury of the 
gale towards yonder iron-bound coast, where the 



A PRESENT HOPE. 



131 



white crests are leaping up amid the cruel reefs in a 
very dance of death. The Captain stands on the 
bridge with stem, compressed lips, watching this wild 
career, while the stoutest seamen are at the helm. On 
either side men from time to time heave the lead, 
and in the bow the mighty anchor lies in readiness 
with its coils of iron cable. Is that Captain madly 
bent upon wrecking his ship? No, he knows full 
well that the little craft cannot weather out in the 
teeth of such a gale ; he knows that here as yet is no 
holding ground for his tackle, and he knows too that 
nearer in shore there is marked on the charts, " good 
anchorage." So he holds on through the wild seas 
till the spot is reached, and then, with a shout of im- 
perative command, the helm is put down, and as the 
way lessens the anchor is let go. The giant flukes 
take strong grip of the good ground below, the cable 
tightens and strains until the motion is arrested. 
And now the gale may shriek through the cordage, 
the furious billows rush with all their force upon the 
prow, while astern the breakers seem to leap and yell 
like a pack of baffled wolves, but — the anchor holds, 
and the ship is saved! And the writer stands in 
imagination upon the deck, watching that strong 
cable, of which he can see but a few glistening 
fathoms, as it runs down into the sea to that unseen 



132 



A PRESENT HOPE. 



anchor so securely planted, and his thoughts pass to 
that other invisible anchorage "within the veil," that 
Holy of Holies where Christ has entered, of which 
the Temple on Zion offered a type. As those gleam- 
ing links of iron are lost beneath the waves, so, he 
thinks, does the line of the Christian's faith pass up- 
wards out of human ken, upwards within that veil 
which hides as yet from mortal eyes "the things 
which God hath prepared for them that love Him." 
Thus, he perceives, are we saved by hope. 

Now, brethren, the experienced seaman looking 
over the side of his ship sees that the anchor is hold- 
ing, knows that his tackle is good, and realizes that 
he is safe from the storm. But the inexperienced 
and nervous passengers would feel more secure if 
they could follow down that cable link by link and 
behold the ponderous mass of the anchor immovably 
imbedded in tenacious clay. So are there compara- 
tively few to whom is given the keen vision, the 
childlike trust, of perfect faith. To many, very many, 
it would seem a help and a comfort if the " eye could 
see the things which God has prepared," could follow 
up the anchor of our hope to its resting-place beneath 
the Heavenly Mercy Seat. And, therefore, in kindly 
consideration for human infirmity, Our Heavenly 
Father has graciously revealed unto us by His Spirit 



A PRESENT HOPE. 



133 



certain intimations of that fair Haven within the 
veil, that we may be encouraged to wait and pray and 
not to faint. 

People sometimes ask me, "What do you think and 
believe about the future life ? Do you think we shall 
do this or that, or be like this or that ? Such ques- 
tions are and must be vain and profitless ; for all our 
ideas and speculations as mere men and women can- 
not reach to any assurance, can but amount to a con- 
fluence or conflict of fancies. All, dear friends, that 
we can really Jcnoio of the future, is just so much as 
has been revealed unto us by the Holy Spirit ; and by 
humbly accepting that message from the unseen 
world, rather than by treacling the void of baseless 
dreams, shall we lay firm hold on the Hope set before 
us, and find peace and strength. 

And first it is surely most reassuring to know that 
the Eternal Son of God has named our future home a 
part of His Father's house — " In My Father's house 
are many mansions." We shall then, if we have 
tried to live as God's children here, feel at home in 
that new mansion, for our Father's Presence and Love 
will be there to make the home bright and all His 
Children happy. 

Then again, S. John in his Revelations speaks not 
only of new heavens but of a new earth, which seems 



134 



A PRESENT HOPE. 



to imply, at least, that our future home will be one 
prepared and fitted to human nature, as our present 
earth is to our present needs. 

Into this future land, once more, " shall enter no 
thing that defileth," the shadow of sin and of all the 
miserable train of sin's followers, shall dim not for one 
moment the pure brightness of those righteous walls. 

That provision will be made, in some sense, for the 
bliss of holy family life and innocent individual 
tastes may be indicated in the words " many man- 
sions," and " I go to prepare a place for you," for if 
Christ, the All-wise and All-loving, prepares a place 
for us, we may well be sure it will be that which is 
exactly suited to each. 

What shall we ourselves be like? The clearest 
answer to this question is given by S. Paul in his great 
fifteenth chapter of the first Epistle to the Corinthi- 
ans, where he plainly declares that we shall rise again 
in human organism, transformed, not in form but in 
quality, as the Risen Jesus was glorified. 

And in confirmation of this we read elsewhere, 
" While we know not }^et what we shall be, we know 
that we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as 
He is." To be, how T ever partially, like Jesus our Lord, 
is surely all that we need to know, and more than we 
had dared desire ! 



A PRESENT HOPE. 



135 



Again, that we shall retain our own personal iden- 
tity, and recognize and love one another in that future 
life, is clearly revealed in several passages of the 
Bible. 

On the Mount of Transfiguration, Moses and Elijah 
appear, and are recognized as the same persons 
who had passed from the life of earth centuries 
before. 

Upon the Cross our Blessed Lord gives His promise 
to the dying penitent, " To-day shalt thou be with Me 
in Paradise ; " and where would have been the reward 
or the hope if he were not to be the very same indi- 
vidual, with identity of consciousness and memory, to 
recognize the Loving Eve that had rested on him, and 
kiss the Wounded Hands that had wrought out his sal- 
vation? Finally, on this head, let us read the author- 
itative message in 1 Thess. iv. 13, which is prefaced 
by the solemn declaration, " I say unto you by the 
Spirit." This message seems unmistakably and au- 
thoritatively to reveal to us that we shall in the future 
life be in identity the same persons, that we shall 
know our Lord and our brethren, and shall ever retain 
these powers. 

What, in conclusion, men ask, will the future life 
and its occupations be ? It may safely be said that, 
if a full answer were vouchsafed to us, we should not 



136 



A PRESENT HOPE. 



comprehend it, any more than a little child can under- 
stand the way of life and occupations of men and 
women. It is enough to know that we shall live in 
Our Father's House and be in His Hands. As a good 
and perfectly wise Father He will assign suitable 
tasks to His children, doubtless in such wise as shall 
best conduce to the development of the characters 
and tastes of each. From what has been revealed to 
us of the lives and ministrations of the Holy Angels 
I see no indication from the Bible that we shall all be 
fitted out with uniform character, abilities, or tastes, 
nor that all will be constrained to do the same thing, 
or lead the same kind of life. 

One occupation, certainly, there will be, which, as 
it is the highest of all, will be common to all. 

As the ideal life of a Christian Parish would be for 
all to meet at dawn in the Parish Church for worship 
and prayer, and then for each to go forth to his 
several work and labour until the evening, when all 
Avould meet again in their Heavenly Father's House 
for thanksgiving and benediction ere retiring to 
rest, so assuredly in that future blessed home this 
ideal will be naturally and genuinely realized. 

In the Book of Eevelation, S. John describes the 
moment of Divine Worship in Heaven when all are 
gathered before the Throne, when patriarch and holy 



A PRESENT HOPE. 



137 



prophet, and angel and archangel, and all the unnum- 
bered ranks of the white-robed redeemed, prostrate 
themselves in adoration, and there rises up " as 
the sound of many waters" their united song of 
praise ! 

These things, dear friends, are not what you and I 
think about our Christian hope; these, if God 'at all 
has spoken by His Spirit, are solid certain facts about 
the future life. With your natural senses you cannot 
see far up the cable of trust towards the celestial 
moorings of your soul ; but lo ! as you are kneeling 
here in the earthly vestibule of the Temple, " the veil 
of the Temple is rent in twain," and within, the 
trembling gaze of Faith ma} r see the form of One 
like unto the Son of God. Ah, is there fear then, 
doubting questioning soul, lest the anchor of your 
hope may be insecurely planted, may drag or break 
loose, and your frail bark drift helpless upon the reef 
of despair? 

Look up, and behold where your hope is fixed ! That 
anchor of your hope is imbedded deep in the midst of 
the Rock of Ages, firm in the Heart of Jesus, God and 
Man, and from the granite grip of that Living Rock, 
from the tender tenacity of that Sacred Heart, no 
power on earth or hell can ever tear it. So long as 
the hand of faith maintains an unrelaxed grasp upon 



A PRESENT HOPE. 



the cable of our hope, so long " we have that hope as 
anchor of the soul both sure and steadfast," and 
" neither height, nor depth, nor any other creature, 
can separate us from the Love of God which is in 
Christ Jesus our Lord." 



XVIII. 



THE BLESSEDNESS OF GIVING. 

" It is more blessed to give than to receive." 

— Acts xx. 35. 

"Why, brethren, is this saying of our blessed Lord 
unrecorded by the Evangelists, why should so deep a 
principle of holy living have been left unspoken in the 
Church but for the seeming chance that S. Paul hap- 
pened to quote these words in his address to the 
Ephesian Elders ? It would be one answer to say 
that, although this phrase is not found in the Gospels, 
yet that its equivalent truths are written clear and 
wide upon almost every page. But the more worthy 
explanation is that men might well forget to write 
down the words who had the story of that all-gener- 
ous Life before them daily. So the blind need to 
have explained to them the beauty of light, but those 
endowed with sight know and feel, even before they 
can express it in words, that " it is a pleasant thing for 
the eyes to behold the sun." You have seen church 
windows painted with scenes from our Lord's life, and, 
although they may be but imperfectly executed, they 



140 THE BLESSEDNESS OF GIVING. 



enable you to realize those divine facts better than a 
sermon could do. 

Let us stand in imagination before such a window 
now, and look with reverence and attention at some 
of the acts of the Incarnate Life, as a commentary 
upon our text. 

There, then, first is Bethlehem. Round the manger 
cradle only His Mother and Foster-father Joseph are 
standing, with the shepherds and the cattle, where 
" He made Himself of no reputation and took upon 
Him the form of a servant." Look at the Child lying 
therein who is yet the King of Kings and Lord of 
Lords. Where are the robes of majesty, His sceptre 
and His crown ? where the Divine Glory which He 
had with the Father before the world was ? where the 
legions of angels, warders and ministers of the palace 
where Jehovah dwells ? All for the time laid aside, 
left behind Him, given up. 

In the Heaven of Heavens the seven lamps are glow- 
ino- as for evermore the Throne is exalted, and before it 
are worshipping those who do, without swerving, the 
will of God perfectly ; the Presence Chamber is ring- 
ing with the Hymn of the Seraphim and the strains 
of harps of gold ; while the King of the Palace has 
come down from Heaven, has emptied Himself of His 
glory — " is made Man" 



THE BLESSEDNESS OF GIVING. 



141 



•Why, O Blessed Jesus, Son of the Eternal Father, 
hast Thou humbled Thyself? why left Thy bright 
Home ? why, at least, not taken the nature of angels 
upon Thee instead of our poor human house of clay ? 
And Jesus answers: "I beheld men dying in sin 
and sorrow, groping* in darkness and error, and I had 
compassion on them and heard their complaint. 
What was My Divine Glory that it should weigh in 
the balance with the salvation of one single soul ? I 
came down that men might have life. i It is more 
Messed to give than to receive.'' " 

We pass on to the next subject, the Central Light 
of the windows. 

"What, my friends, does Calvary say to us, Calvary 
with its Cross and Him that hangs thereon ? What 
do we read in the Eyes so full of anguish yet of infi- 
nite love, in the Hands stretched out, the Body racked 
and pierced, in the purple stream of Life Blood, in 
the surrendered Spirit ? 

What but this — while we were yet sinners Christ 
died for us, that whosoever believeth in Him should 
not perish but have eternal life. And this life He 
surrenders as a voluntary gift. " I have power to lay 
down My Life, and I have power to take it again, no 
man taketh it from Me." 

Why, O Crucified Eedeemer, didst Thou not sum- 



142 THE BLESSEDNESS OF GIVING. 

mon to the rescue more than twelve legions of angels, 
why not confound the taunting persecutors by coming 
down from the Cross ? And the Cross itself, sym- 
bol of the height and depth, the length and breadth 
of Love, replies : "Because it is more blessed to give 
than to receive." 

Our third and last picture, bright with a trium- 
phant light, carries us forth in spirit to the Mount of 
Olives. From the green slopes of the hillside Christ 
has gone up, and the little knot of men to whom He 
has been more than Master, Teacher, and Brother, 
stand gazing wistfully up into Heaven. Do they 
behold the radiance gleaming from the outermost 
rank of the heavenly host, and catch the welcoming 
smile on angel faces as they receive their returning 
and victorious King ? Do they hear the last echoes 
wafted down the waves of space, echoes of that 
mighty chorus of the ten thousand times ten thou- 
sand joyful spirits, " Lift up your heads, O ye gates " ? 
And if they did, and if their sad hearts followed 
Jesus yet as He passes onward to the Throne, must it 
not have seemed as if a great gulf had opened 
between them and their Lord, and that a bereaved 
and weary and impoverished life alone remained with 
them ? And w T hat is the reassuring message sent 
down to them ? " The same Jesus shall so come " — 



THE BLESSEDNESS OF GIVING. 143 



the same Jesus who taught, healed, and died for you, 
shall come. And meanwhile, as He is seated above, 
God of God, Light of Light, He is not unmindful of 
His own. Nay, why did He ascend up, why again 
receive His glory, but that He might prepare a place 
for us, that He might send the Comforter to us, that 
He might " receive gifts " for us, that in a word He 
might write above the Great White Throne itself, u it 
is more blessed to give than to receive" 

Thus the Life of the Incarnate Son of God pro- 
claims the principle of our text, and Bethlehem, Cal- 
vary, Olivet summon as witnesses to its divine power 
the Cradle, the Cross and the Throne. 

" It is more blessed to give than to receive." Is 
this truth, written out thus emphatically in the Divine 
Life, a power also in the life of the creatures of God ? 
Surely we may answer, Yes. Look at a well-cultivated 
field. The earth receives the care of man, welcomes 
the rain and sunshine, takes into her bosom the seed 
of wheat or other grain. Now look onward a few 
months to where " the valleys stand so thick with 
corn that they shall laugh and sing." This is a true 
and beautiful thought. The good soil gives back the 
tiny seed multiplied a thousand fold, and as thus it 
generously restores, it laughs up to the clouds and the 
sunshine and the tiller of the land the same lesson, 



144 THE BLESSEDNESS OF GIVING. 



" It is more blessed to give than to receive ! " Or 
stand still and watch patiently that mother bird hov- 
ering over the nest, and feeding the young who have 
but just sense enough to open their bills and cry out 
for more. You will realize that the pleasure of those 
two little feathered creatures is of a widely different 
kind. The young are enjoying the mere animal grati- 
fication of satisfied hunger, of getting what they 
crave; the elder bird displays something altogether 
nobler. We see in her love and tenderness toward 
the helpless and trusting nestlings, the active and per- 
severing search for food, not for self but for her young 
ones, and these things, even in an old hedge-sparrow, 
are beautiful and divine and unselfish, and repeat for 
us the same grand refrain, " It is more Messed to give 
than to receive." 

And when we go higher up the scale and look into 
the heart of man, what do we find ? It is true that 
the world is ringing with its favorite melody, " First 
self, then others ; it is more blessed to receive than 
to give;" and yet, after all, in the higher parts of 
human nature a more lofty standard is even uncon- 
sciously set up. Why does the eye glisten, the pulse 
throb, the hoarse, choking, uncontrollable cheer burst 
from the throats of a vast multitude as one man, at 
beholding the heroic sailor or fireman risk his own 



THE BLESSEDNESS OF GIVING. 145 

life to save another ? Why do the stories of devotion 
and self-denial of a Philip Sydney, a Dorothea Dix, 
or a Howard, impell us to admiration, and to at least 
a momentary } T earning to be of use to our fellow men ? 
Why, but because each soul of man contains some 
fragments of the image of its Maker, fragments which 
however soiled and unsightly yet have power to re- 
flect something of the truth, " It is more blessed to 
give than to receive" ? 

Yet the World's maxims have upon us, in practice, 
an all too-overmastering influence. " Something for 
me" is too often allowed to become the child's ruling 
passion, till it hardens into the unlovely covetousness 
of youth and manhood, which would say out, if it 
dared, that " It is more blessed to receive than to 
give." 

And this sort of erroneous training runs deep into 
our conceptions of God and Religion. Is Religion's 
end and object mainly, as much popular teaching 
w r ould seem to affirm, that a man may save his own 
soul for himself ? Is it not rather that in so doing he 
may glorify his Father in Heaven, and help on his 
brother men ? 

Many, in practice, regard Religion as a means 

merely of gaining good for themselves ; the Bible 

teaches us rather that Religion is to enable us to live 
10 



146 THE BLESSEDNESS OF GIVING. 



unto God and to give ourselves to His service, as 
our bounden duty. 

Many again — and bear with me for saying it (this 
is, I fear, especially true of the Anglo-Saxon race on 
both sides of the Atlantic) — take the world's maxims 
with them to Church ; they actually are not ashamed 
to avow that they attend Church with the view of 
what they will gain socially and pecuniarily ; they 
are not ashamed to enjoy the services of the Church 
at the least possible cost to themselves. Instead of 
settling with themselves honestly the most that they 
can afford to give, they try by every possible device 
to give the very least that can be expected of them. 
Such persons, brethren, cannot profit much by the 
Church and its services, for they are nourishing all 
the while in their hearts, like a deadly reptile, a 
secret worship of the World and of Self which must 
clog their prayers and neutralize the teachings of 
the Holy Spirit. 

But you, who know what it is to give of your 
abundance, or out of your poverty, freely and gen- 
erously for the service of G-od and His Church, 
would not lose this pleasure for any consideration, 
would grudge to allow others to do all and leave 
you nothing. You realize in your joy in the min- 
istrations of grace, and in the beauty of worship 



THE BLESSEDNESS OF GIVING. 147 



towards which you give your time and substance and 
prayers and thought, that " it is indeed more blessed 
to give than to receive" 

One offering there is which we can all make to our 
good God, in all times and in all places, the offering 
of a consecrated will and "a free heart." We are 
tempted to take our own will and way in home-life, 
in amusements, in our pursuits, even in our religious 
duties. Sometimes, often, to do so is to do wrong, 
to disobe}^ the Higher Will, to give pain to others. 
Try, then, beloved, when next thus tempted, and 
your own will seems most sweet, to give up your will 
to God and let His gentle love rule in j'our heart, 
then will you taste of your own heart's experience 
that " it is more blessed to give than to receive" 



XIX. 



HOLINESS. 

"Holiness becometh Thine house forever." 

— Psalms xciii. 6. 

" The Psalms stand up," it has well been written, 
" like a pillar of fire and light in the history of the 
early world. They lift us at once into an atmos- 
phere of religious thought which is the highest that 
man has ever reached." 

This statement is emphatically true of those por- 
tions of the Psalter which breathe forth the awe and 
reverence inspired by the Presence of Almighty God. 

It is a spiritual education of the most lofty kind to 
study in the Old Testament the living sense of Jeho- 
vah's Presence as felt by His servants, and the ever 
deepening reverence and devotion of their language 
as this Presence is more deeply realized. 

And this living and loving sentiment hovered over 
the erection of the first moving Tabernacle, and then 
crystallized around the permanent and glorious Tem- 
ple of Solomon on Mount Zion, the House of God, 
where His Sacred Presence should abide. It is diffi- 



HOLINESS. 



149 



cult for us, with our many church buildings rising 
in every village, to realize all that the one sacred 
Temple meant to the People of God. It was the 
Core of their national life, the Home of their religion 
to which all came, knowing " that in Jerusalem men 
ought to worship," the Focus of the light and fire 
of Prophecy and Law. 

Remembering this, we can understand how large 
a place the Sacred House of God, which "He had 
hallowed to place His name there," holds in Holy 
Scripture. 

"Holiness becometh, is fitting, to Thine House 
forever." "We have lately, dear brethren, had our 
thoughts turned much to our own dear Parish 
Church, its history, memories, hallowed associations, 
and work. Bear with me for a few moments if I 
seek to carry on the line of our thoughts a little 
further in the same direction. 

Surely what was true of the Jewish Temple, is true 
in a greater degree of a Christian Church, in which 
we reverence and worship the same God in His more 
perfectly revealed Being, and in the wider outflow- 
in £s of His redeeming- love. There the Cherubim 
overshadowed the Mercy Seat of the Shechinah, here 
the Cross rises above our Altar and whispers of a yet 
more sacred and precious Presence. 



150 



HOLINESS. 



"Holiness," says the Psalmist, "becometh Thine 
House forever." Holiness is the fragrant effluence 
which emanates from the Presence of Christ in His 
Church. Holiness is the atmosphere, glowing and 
roseate, through which the walls of His House 
should ever appear, quivering and beauteous in its 
salutary light. 

And what is Holiness? In this word originally 
were enfolded the two meanings, which are now 
rendered by words differently spelt, wholeness, com- 
pleteness, perfection, and holiness, a nature con- 
secrated to the service of God. So in the German 
language, "heil," whole, in a state of health, and 
"heilig," holy, are probably in essence the same. 
And we can easily see how the two meanings run up 
into one essential significance. That which was dedi- 
cated to God's service and so " holy unto the Lord," 
must be whole, perfect, without blemish. And con- 
versely, that which Almighty God accepted as 
entirely His own and hallowed, must thereby become 
very good, without blemish. 

Rightly, then, did Solomon seek to make the 
House, which was to be hallowed unto God, perfect 
in every way. Only the more pure and noble 
materials were to be employed, with the most perfect 
workmanship, the most stately and appropriate wor- 



HOLINESS. 



151 



ship. Holiness, the consecration and perfection of 
material, of structure, and worship, were to become 
God's House forever. So, too, alike that Temple of 
old and every Christian Church is to be " holy unto 
the Lord " and perfect, not merely in being as out- 
wardly dignified and suitable as our means can make 
it, but it is to be holy and perfect in its inner life and 
influence. 

How this is with the divine life of the Church we 
can see. "Where the Shechinah, the Presence of God 
is, thence must flow holy influences. All that Christ 
has pledged Himself to do in and through His 
Church, will always be done : as we say in the Bap- 
tismal Service, " This promise He, for His part, will 
most surely keep and perform." And so the Church 
must be forever Holy, because of Christ's Presence, His 
holy Teachings, His sanctifying, sacramental Grace, 
which are " able to make the Man of God perfect, 
thoroughly furnished unto all good works." 

But in the Church of Christ, militant on earth, 
there is body as well as soul, human as well as divine 
constituents, and it depends largely upon the obedi- 
ence of the human agents, how far the power of holi- 
ness makes itself perceived and felt. 

You pluck the sunny-faced daisy and it seems at 
first glance to be one perfect blossom. You examine 



153 



HOLINESS. 



it by the magnifying glass, and, behold ! the heart of 
the flower is composed of countless minute florets. 
So, to the perfection of the Temple of God is needed 
the perfecting of the individual temples of the souls 
of men; in them must Christ dwell and work, so that 
of each one of them, as of the whole Church, it shall 
be true, " Holiness becometh Thine House forever." 
The strong ship will weather the hostile elements, but 
may be wrecked by a careless or incompetent crew, 
and all history is a repetition of the losses and dangers 
to which the Ark of Christ's Church has been ex- 
posed through the faults of its officers and men, its 
priests and people. " Holiness becometh Thine House 
forever ! " The house of the human heart is conse- 
crated in Holy Baptism to be the abode of the King 
of kings. Holiness surely as consecration — the recollec- 
tion that our lives are not our own to degrade, or throw 
away, or waste at pleasure, but belong to the High and 
Holy One. " Ye are a chosen generation, a royal 
priesthood." Holiness also as completeness, perfec- 
tion, a state of soundness. Why are some so differ- 
ently endowed from others ? Why are some characters 
so well developed in one direction, so dwarfed in an- 
other, like disproportioned plants ? Is it not that all 
may equally learn to look upward and stretch up- 
ward toward the sunlight, toward the one only Perfect 



HOLINESS. 



153 



Being ? We may not rest in the contemplation of our 
own perfections, still less be content with our im- 
perfections, but gaze up at His Holiness. And how 
are we to aim at perfection, at holiness, at proportion 
and shapeliness in our lives, conscious as we are of 
their one-sidedness, of their many stunted limbs? 

Not, certainly, by being down-hearted because we 
have not the Courage of David, the Faith of Abra- 
ham, the Love of S. John ! Do you remember the 
man with the withered, shrunken arm ? What did 
Christ bid him do? "Stretch forth thine hand" 
and he stretched it forth, and, in the stretching, it 
was restored like as the other ! So if we have but 
a shadowy hope, or love, or faith, as the mole has 
the rudiments of eyes, do not let us, like the mole, 
burrow in the darkness because we have not an eye 
like a hawk ! rather let us turn our face to the sun, 
make use of the instinctive desire to see, until God 
develops within us the power of a complete vision. 
" Holiness hecometh Thine House forever" Let 
each remember that by the prayerful consecration 
of his own heart, the perfecting of his own character 
in God's own way and through Christ's freely offered 
grace, he is increasing the holiness, the salutary 
influence, and the attractive beauty of the Church 
of which he is a unit. So will the face of the daisy 



154 



HOLINESS. 



smile up to Heaven with the sunlight gleaming on 
its multifloral and golden heart ! 

And this, dear friends, is, after all, the reason for 
our existence as Christians, and as a Christian Parish, 
that "Holiness becometh Christ's House forever." 
" Ye are the light of the world ; ye are the salt of 
the earth." Christ does not kindle the beacon lights 
of His Church that they may be hidden under the 
bed of worlclliness ; and, again, if the salt has lost 
its preserving and purifying savour it is "good for 
nothing but to be trodden under foot of man." 

Our existence, then, as a Christian Parish is, first, 
that God's Name may be Hallowed by the offering 
up to Him of true and faithful Worship, and secondly, 
that through His Church the Blessed Saviour may 
enlighten, purify, and ennoble the lives of men, 
women, and children in the world. "Holiness 
becometh Thine House forever." Oh, all Holy Re- 
deemer! O, Holy, Blessed and Glorious Trinity! 
May Thy Church and Thy people in this Parish, 
once consecrated to Thy Name and Service, ever be 
the Shrine of Thy sacred and abiding Presence, that 
through these walls, and from these hearts, the 
Light of Thy Truth may ever shine, the Purity of 
Thy Saving Health forever flow. 



XX. 



FREE THOUGHT. 

" Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." 

—2 Cor. iii. 17. 

An English historical novelist has made merry 
over the anxieties of politicians to discover a cry, 
significant, epigrammatic, resonant, and popular, with 
which to appeal to their constituents. 

The natural instinct of conquest has led men in all 
ages to emblazon and commend their cause by some 
noble sentiment. On the other hand, the fact that 
such a motto, or such words have become associated 
with a particular party or school of thought, has, in 
the eyes of many, robbed them of their original 
truth and beauty. Thus has it been with that noble 
Christian sentiment, liberty, fraternity, and equality, 
which has become inextricably interwoven with the 
excesses of the French Revolution. 

" Liberty " has come to connote the license of 
Belleville, " Fraternity " a brotherhood in crime, 
" Equality " the impartial edge of the guillotine ! 



156 



FREE THOUGHT. 



A somewhat similar fate has befallen the phrase 
" freethinking." It has been commonly adopted by, 
or applied to, those who have written or spoken 
against revealed religion. 

On the one side, the title of Freethinker has been 
the boast of some who delight to speak of the Chris- 
tian Faith as a bondage of superstition from which 
they are emancipated ; on the other, it has been 
applied as a term of distrust or opprobrium to anti- 
Christian writers. 

Yet, rightly considered, like Liberty, Fraternity 
and Equality, this word stands for a great and noble 
truth, and Christendom should not tamely permit 
this emblem to be filched from it and set up as the 
standard of the opponents' camp. 

" Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty." 
Christ came " to set at liberty them that are bound," 
whether that bondage be unjust fetters of bodily 
slavery, shackles of mental error and prejudice, or the 
chains of sin around the soul. Christ's Holy Spirit is 
the Spirit of holy freedom. 

What then is liberty? The world has somewhat 
outgrown the crude conceptions of liberty, current in 
the poems of Byron or Shelley, as the revulsion from 
all restraint, the throwing aside of accepted lines of 
thought, morality and government, the unfettered 



FREE THOUGHT. 



157 



right of the individual to do and say what is right in 
his own eyes. 

The freedom of the recluse, who seeks in some 
desert cell or mountain to escape the limitations and 
conventionalities of society, is felt to be no true 
human freedom, for the nature of the man is dwarfed 
and maimed from very lack of the restrictions which 
he avoids. 

The liberty which a child enjoys, unchecked by 
wise authority, to indulge any freak of fancy or out- 
burst of passion, is not true liberty; the child's 
manhood is dwarfed and spoiled by this very li- 
cense. 

So, too, is it in the department of the mind. The 
peasant living in some lonely hut of the Simmenthal, 
ignorant of what has been thought and taught on the 
great topics of human interest, may seem more free to 
think than the scholar in the discipline of school and 
university ; yet in truth such freedom is but a fancy, 
and we find him to be a slave to prejudice, rural 
myths, and erroneous speculations. 

If mere independence of, or revolt from, accepted 
laws of life and opinion constitutes freethinking, then 
the truest freethinkers would be those who utterly 
disregard all precedents or recognized rules of human 
thought, and such persons are, as a rule, only to 



158 



FREE THOUGHT. 



be found in large establishments under medical 
care ! 

What, then, is true freedom? True freedom of 
the body implies the condition in which it can most 
easily and best obey the true laws of physical 
life; true freedom of the mind is that condition in 
which the mental faculties can most easily and best 
obey the true laws of mental labour and growth. 

Is genuine freedom lessened or maimed by the 
recognition of certain fixed laws and limitations, such 
as the Law of Gravity in Science, or the Creeds of the 
Church in Religion? Surely not. Do patients com- 
plain that their liberty is curtailed because a certain 
bottle is labelled " poison," or " for outward applica- 
tion only " ? Does a tourist inveigh against the 
slavery to conventionality, because, at the meeting of 
roads, there is but one which is named as leading to 
his destination ? Men had been killed by that poison, 
travellers had wandered and wasted time and strength 
on roads which lost themselves in moor or marsh, and 
so the label and the sign limit the freedom of choice 
of all sane men. Yet in fact the freedom is greater, 
freedom from danger doubt and loss of time, freedom 
to devote all energy to true legitimate aims and assured 
advances. So is it in the paths of religious thought: the 
sign posts of the Creeds are bequests of experience, 



FREE THOUGHT. 



159 



they are the guardians of true, healthy, and progressive 
freedom of thought. " Where the Spirit of the Lord 
is, there is liberty," for that Spirit alone brings a knowl- 
edge of the whole Truth and leads the mind to em- 
brace it. Thus, using freedom in its true sense as the 
condition in which man may most easily and best 
obey the true law of his being, it may be said with 
truth, that the thoroughly instructed and faithful 
Christian believer is the freest of all free-thinkers ; 
free from doubt, free from essential error, free to pur- 
sue the truth. The Spirit of the Lord is with him, 
leading him " unto all truth," and that Spirit bids him 
look upon the universe and know that " the earth is 
the Lord's and the fullness thereof." The same Free 
Spirit encourages the believer not to fear to penetrate 
into the darkest corner, for God the Father can bring 
light out of darkness : not to fear to look upon the 
night of misery and death, for God the Son can turn 
it into the joy of the morning: not to fear to face 
boldly the enigmas of life, for God the Holy Ghost 
can read them through and through and will give 
the solution in due time. Upborne on the wings of 
a Heaven-born and humble faith, the mind flies 
upward with a freedom and power of confidence 
unknown to those who lack this mighty motor, it 
rejoices in the liberal expanse of revealed truth, 



160 



FREE THOUGHT. 



as well as in the eager exploration of the fields of 
secular learning, for everywhere it goes in the power 
of the Holy Spirit of God, and where that is there 
is liberty. 

Let us then clearly distinguish between false and 
true freedom of thought. False liberty, like an inex- 
perienced pedestrian, disregards the guide-posts of 
History and Faith, the Creeds of the Church and the 
teaching of her ministers, (which are the bequests of 
the wisest and holiest experience), and then wanders 
into the byways of speculation, which have misled so 
many, and loses days and years in the barren and 
profitless warrens which are whitened with the 
skeletons of wasted lives. 

But true Free-thought is the Christian's rightful 
possession, for it is the freedom of that explorer who 
recognizes and respects what other men have done, 
who notes the landmarks left by them, and thus is 
freed from doubt or hesitation, and enabled to press 
on into paths as yet untrodden. 

Above all, the Christian Believer is free of the 
universe of thought, because he alone possesses the 
key which will fit every door of that House which is 
His Father's. Chambers there may be in that House 
which he has not yet strength to reach, long corri- 
dors down which he can as yet but glance, but he is 



FREE THOUGHT. 



1G1 



assured that when the time shall come for him to 
knock at the door of each room it will open for him 
as for a rightful son, for one who is heir of the King- 
dom of Heaven, a child of the Holy Spirit of Truth, 
Who makes him free of His House forever. 

11 



XXI. 



CREATION'S EXPECTANCY. 

" The earnest expectation of the creature waiteth 
for the manifestation of the Sons of God." 

— Romans viii. 19. 

"We are familiar with the thought of the expecta- 
tion of Almighty God, of the patient long-suffering 
with which He waits, " not willing that any should 
perish, but that all should come to repentance." 

We also know well the exhortation to remember 
the expectation of the Blessed Ones, who, having 
finished their own course, gather as a great cloud 
of witnesses, to observe and long for our success. 
" Shall we not," cries an old preacher, " hasten and 
run that we may see our fatherland % There a great 
multitude of dear ones, fathers, brothers, sons, are 
expecting us, and, saved themselves, are anxious for 
our salvation." 

But we are not so familiar with the thought of 
the expectation of Creation, (for this is the true mean- 
ing of the word creature in this passage) as a motive 



CREA TION ' 5 EXPE C TA JVC Y. 



163 



for which we should work out our salvation, " per- 
fecting holiness in the fear of God." 

Mankind is wont to regard itself as altogether 
apart from and above the other creatures of this 
world, which are apt to assume the humble office of 
an ornamental fringe to our lives, or of our lowly and 
necessary servants. Yet this mistaken view might 
well have been set right by a recollection of the 
teachings of the Bible, which show plainly that 
while man was made to be the head and crown of 
things earthly, yet, on one side of his being at least, 
he is brother to all of earth's children. 

In the visions of the Living Creatures of Ezekiel 
and S. John, we behold the symbol of the mysterious 
relations existing between things created, the lion, 
the ox, the eagle and the man, serving as the chariot- 
throne of the Most High, and united in His praise 
and service. 

S. Paul, in our text, gives us one of the very rare 
glimpses into the secrets of this relationship, when he 
plainly tells us that this earth and all things therein 
are earnestly expecting, waiting, for the manifesta- 
tion of the sons of God ! 

The Expectancy of Creation, what does it mean? 

And, first, what are we to understand by the 
" manifestation of the sons of God " ? This is ex- 



164 



CREATION'S EXPECTANCY. 



plained for us, in the twenty-third verse, as equivalent 
to our adoption, or rather the perfecting of our adop- 
tion, our being clearly proved the sons of God by the 
redemption of our whole nature. A child of God is 
man by creation, and in Holy Baptism by a second 
birth is that Divine Paternity renewed, and the In- 
carnate Christ implanted in the garden of the soul. 
But that inner Divine Life must grow within, and 
transfuse and shine through our earthly life by the 
sanctifying Grace of the Holy Ghost, as the flame 
shines through the slides of the lantern. "Add," 
writes the Apostle, "to your faith virtue, and to 
virtue knowledge, and to knowledge temperance, 
and to temperance patience, . . . and to brotherly 
kindness charity." Christlike graces are to be culti- 
vated, a Christlike character by obedience and by 
Divine help to be formed, until the sonship to God 
is clearly manifested, the transfiguration of human 
nature from glory to glory completed. This, then, is 
the end for which Creation waits, earnestly expecting 
man's growth in holiness, or, in other words, his being 
shown forth in fact as a true son of the Heavenly 
Father. May we inquire yet further into the secret 
of Creation's expectancy and ask why thus it should 
yearn, and "groan" for the progressive sanctifica- 
tion of man? 



CREATION'S EXPECTANCY. 



165 



The whole subject is full of mystery and hard to be 
understood, and yet I think there are some points in 
it where the meaning of S. Paul's words can be made 
clear and practical to our understanding. And the 
first reason, clearly, is the one given by the Apostle, 
that Creation " may be delivered from the bondage of 
sin and corruption." This deliverance depends upon 
the Redemption of man himself, for, as the sins and 
degradation of the human race have cast their 
shadow of pain and desolation over the fair face of 
the earth, and the tares of evil in the heart of man 
have been imaged in the thorns and thistles of the 
field, so has there been also a wondrous sympathy in 
the upward path. Man's nature is redeemed from 
degradation through the mercy of God, and Nature 
around him shares in his elevation. " The merciful 
man is merciful to his beast," and societies for prevent- 
ing cruelty to animals, and hospitals for the dumb 
creatures, attest the reality of this relationship. One 
of the first signs of improvement in a squalid house 
or street is the appearance in the windows of pots or 
boxes of plants which are evidently the objects of 
loving care. Even here and now Ave may catch 
glimpses of an age when the Manifestation of the 
Divine Sonship in man shall not tolerate the devasta- 
tion of the face of the earth by war, or the wasting 



166 



CREATION'S EXPECTANCY. 



of its beauty and usefulness by folly or ignorance! 
And for this more perfect era, this Eden of peace and 
wisdom, Creation waits, " groaning and travailing in 
pain together until now." 

" The earnest expectation of Creation waiteth for 
the manifestation of the so?is of God." Not only, 
however, for its deliverance from corruption, but 
because man is the head and king over the lower 
creatures, does Creation long for her head to be 
worthy of his place in the world. 

The earth is a storehouse full of things of use 
and beauty, which are designed by the great Creator 
to supply the intelligent needs of man. But in order 
that Creation may thus be a good and gracious ser- 
vant to our race, it needs eyes to see, ears to hear, 
wisdom to act. 

For how many ages has Creation lain in travail 
with her choicest treasures in her womb, waiting the 
manifestation of the God-given skill of man to enable 
her to deliver them to the world ! Generations gazed 
with stupid uncomprehending eyes upon steam rush- 
ing from boiling water, and this creature of God 
waited until at last a man was enlightened to under- 
stand and use this mighty power, and with it to 
change the face of the earth. 

In the beautiful collection of pictures, which many 



CREATION'S EXPECTANCY. 



167 



of us have been kindly permitted to see and admire, 
we may have been struck with this thought: how 
wonderful is the beauty discovered and delineated by 
the cultivated sight and taste in those every day 
objects of field and lane and hedgerow, of light and 
shade upon tree and roof, which the untrained eye 
would scarcely notice. So also has Nature voices 
of sweetest music for man to hear and interpret, 
and for how many centuries did the breezes sigh 
through reeds and among boughs of the forest, or 
vibrate upon string or metal, before the Orpheus 
came who listened to these wandering whispers of 
the spirit of song, taught them their true power 
of expression, and enchanted the world ! Let us 
never forget, brethren, that Our Father looked upon 
Creation, as it issued from His Hands, and pronounced 
it "very good," and be sure that He gazes upon 
His own Art Gallery with pleasure, and rejoices to 
hearken to earth's many voices ! If we are to show 
ourselves as truly His children, we must strive to see 
with His eyes and hear with His ears, so that the 
world of Nature may be to us all that it has the 
power to be, and that from the things that are made 
we may learn more and more of God's " eternal 
power and goodness." 

For this, surely, is the third and highest reason 



168 



CREA TION'S EXPECTANCY. 



why Creation awaits " the manifestation of the sons 
of God." It is that Creation may praise its Maker 
perfectly, being itself made whole. The lower creat- 
ures, animate and inanimate, are faithful to their 
Maker, and dumbly praise and adore Him by their 
obedience to His laws, but man, the master of the 
garden, who should be the spokesman of all this 
inarticulate life, the precentor of the world's Te 
Deum, is too often faithless and a blasphemer ! Just, 
then, as a fair, strong body is ruined by the loss of 
its reason, so Creation feels that, faithful to God as 
all the rest may be, man's unfaithfulness is a piteous 
blot on her fair fame, man's dumbness or discord 
robs of its dominant and most essential part her 
orchestra of praise. And so Creation waits, waits 
for the perfected redemption of man's nature, to 
restore the lost unity of her life, waits for man, as 
a son of God, to stand forth as her high priest, who 
shall interpret and offer up to Heaven her gratitude 
and love. 

Each step, then, that we take forward in the way 
of self-improvement, of victory over evil, of growth 
in grace, is a flashing forth of the Christ-life within, 
a manifestation of our Divine sonship ; it is a hasten- 
ing of the hour of the world's transfiguration, when 
we, with all earthly creatures, " shall be delivered 



CREA TION' S EXPE CTA JVC Y. 



169 



from the bondage of corruption into the glorious 
liberty of the Children of God ! " 

Here and now in our acts of Christian worship we 
anticipate that glorious hour. For a while, at least, 
we are brothers with the creatures, and at one with 
them. The very material fabric of the Church 
quivers with sympathetic harmony, the air through 
the metal and wood of the organ comes to make 
more resonant and lovely our service of song. 

In the highest of all earthly acts of worship we 
are, by Christ's own Institution, mysteriously depend- 
ent for its celebration upon two of the simplest of 
God's creatures, and recognize in the consecrated 
elements of Bread and Wine at once the veils and 
the vehicles of His Sacred Presence. 

And as from countless Altars the Oblation is 
offered, so from countless lips the streams of worship 
spring, like fountain sprays, and flow together into 
the Heavenly Courts ; day and night they rise and 
roll on, in wave upon wave of loving adoration, till 
they break at length in a very foam of praise at the 
foot of the Great White Throne ! 



XXII. 



THE CHUKCH AND HER CHILDREN. 

" Thine eyes did see my substance yet being imper- 
fect, and in Thy Book were all my members written, 
which day by day were fashioned, when as yet there 
was none of them." 

— Psalms cxxxix. 15, 16. 

There is a beautiful fancy, and one which has 
appealed to many devout minds, that as the waters 
of the Font are poured upon the infant's brow, as the 
Bride of Christ receives it into her arms as God's 
own Child, and gives it the new Christian name, that 
name, as spoken by the Priest, is recorded by the pen 
of Angels in the Register of Heaven. The Holy 
Church thus says to the Heavenly Father, " In Thy 
Book were all my members written^ 

The ground tone of this Psalm is both solemn and 
stimulating. Man, sings the writer, is ever in the 
Divine Presence, and beneath the Eye of his Creator, 
while even in his imperfect, undeveloped state, that 
all-penetrating Eye traces out the processes of growth, 
as the Divine Will fashions him within and without. 



THE CHURCH AND HER CHILDREN. 171 

It is a responsibility for the preacher to address a 
Christian family on an anniversary like the present, 
which is sacred to a }^ear's memories, and pregnant 
with a year's resolves. 

In every City and in every Parish the Church of 
Christ has to be built up, and the mystery of the 
interdependence of the Body and the Members, the 
Family and the Children, the Church and the Indi- 
vidual, is renewed. 

The Church gives life and strength to her mem- 
bers, and they in turn are sources of strength or of 
weakness, of glory or of shame to her. " In Thy 
Book," she says humbly and trustfully, " were all my 
members written which day by day were fashioned." 

Now, in the Prayer-book Catechism, (or Instruction 
in Christian Doctrine,) we find the life, character and 
responsibilities of the Christian, presented to us under 
a threefold aspect. 

We are in Holy Baptism made " Members of Christ, 
Children of God, and Inheritors of the Kingdom of 
Heaven," that is to say, our Christian life is set 
before us first as a personal relation to Christ, a 
member of a body; secondly, as children of a family, 
to the Father and to one another ; thirdly, as citizens 
of a 'kingdom, to the State and to its laws. The 
individual, the family, the nation. 



172 THE CHURCH AND HER CHILDREN. 

You are then, brethren, Baptized into Christ, and 
so His members. No mere initiation into a society 
is this, but a veritable living union with the Living and 
life-giving Lord. " As many as have been Baptized 
into Christ have put on Christ," says the Apostle, 
and for him this was an intense spiritual realit} 7 . 

What, then, is the underlying and most vital prin- 
ciple in this our organic, personal relation to Christ? 
What is it in a body that is the most vital question 
to ask concerning a hand or a foot ? Is there life — 
is it in living union with the body ? There may be 
pain, disease, wounds in a limb, but, until mortifica- 
tion sets in, there is always hope that the circulation 
of the life-blood from the heart may revitalize and 
heal the injured part. 

So that the supreme question for Conscience to 
put to us, in our relation to Christ as His members, 
is, Is there life in it — strong and healthy life? 

1. Life is first a Divine and Sacred gift. No man 
creates his own life, but enters the world through 
the mystery of birth. So the spiritual life of man, 
alike in the teaching of Scripture and in fact, is and 
must be originated from without. As Creator, the 
life of the Soul is the gift of God the Father. As 
Kedeemer, God the Son purifies and renews that 
life with the added vitality of the Incarnation. As 



THE CHURCH AND HER CHILDREN. 173 

Sanctifier, God the Holy Ghost purges the spiritual 
system from the soils of sin, and feeds and nourishes 
it with the Breath of His Grace and with the Bread 
of Life from the Altar. 

2. Does, then, the Life of the Soul depend alto- 
gether upon the external aids from on High ? Hear 
what our Lord says : " Ye would not come unto Me 
that ye might have life." We have our part not in 
the birth but in the subsequent health and develop- 
ment of that life. So the lungs of the Spirit must 
inhale, through prayer, the pure air of Heaven, — 
otherwise strength will fail. And sin's medicine, 
true repentance, must be allowed its cleansing opera- 
tion to purge the system from dead works to serve 
the living God. 

Finally, the true sacramental food of the Soul, the 
Living Bread, which Christ Himself provides in the 
Blessed Sacrament of the Altar, must be received 
with due regularity and care. 

Am I, then, " alive unto God," a living member of 
Christ in His Church, full of a joyous and bounding 
vitality, a cause of strength and beauty to the 
Mystical Body, and of joy to Christ the Head ? 

But, secondly, we are by Holy Baptism made also 
" Children of God," scions of the Heavenly Family. 
And if in the member of a body the essential question 



174 THE CHURCH AND HER CHILDREN. 

is, Is there life \ — in the family it is, Is there love ? 
Is there in the family true love of husband and wife, 
of parent and child, of brother and sister ? Poverty 
may be there, sickness, individual difference of taste 
and disposition, but if genuine love rule in that house, 
we instinctively feel that all will eventually be well : 
that golden wand will transmute all baser qualities, 
and mutual forbearance will conquer personal fail- 
ings. " Better a dinner of herbs where love is than 
a stalled ox and hatred therewith ! " 

Clearly, then, in the family, love is the prime 
requisite, and is by Christ Himself so declared : 
" Thou shalt love the Lord Thy God with all thy 
heart, and thy neighbour as thyself." 

Thus we get the natural and beautiful sequence: 
first, Life, then Love. Life, because members of the 
living Christ. Love to God and the Brethren, be- 
cause children of the Heavenly Family. 

In the Mystery of the Holy Trinity we may trace 
that love which is to be reflected between the persons 
of an earthly family. Can we think that the Spiritual 
Family, the Church of Christ, could live under any 
other law ? 

Love raises all domestic life up to a loftier plain, 
and business cares, and individual differences, and 
selfish desires, become mellowed and softened in its 



THE CHURCH AND HER CHILDREN. 175 



atmosphere. As we move at night amid the furni- 
ture of our home, or the shrubs of our gardens, how 
weird, how distorted, do the various objects appear? 
But as the sun arises, all assume their due proportion 
and true faces, while even an unattractive landscape 
is glorified where the light shines upon it. So, as 
love dawns and glows upon hearts within the family, 
will joy and peace and beauty be there. " Desire," 
then, " earnestly the best gifts, . . . and the 
greatest of these is charity ! " 

But, beloved, you are not only Members of Christ 
and Children of God, you are also Inheritors of the 
Kingdom of Heaven. Citizens are you of Christ's 
Heavenly Kingdom, founded upon earth, extending 
into the realms of Glory. Upon the limits of this 
One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church, the Sun 
of Righteousness never sets. 

And if, as a Member of Christ, I ask, Am I a Liv- 
ing Member ? as a Child of God, Am I a Loving 
Child ? so as a Citizen of Christ's Kingdom, a Subject 
of the King of Saints, I ask the question, Am I Loyal ? 

Loyalty, — the intelligent and hearty acceptance of, 
and obedience to, the service of our country and its 
laws, is the primary qualification of a good citizen. 
And if, as we have seen, life must precede love, so 
love is naturally the parent of loyalty. The sacrifice 



176 THE CHURCH AND HER CHILDREN. 



of life becomes sweet because springing from love of 
home and country. Am I loyal, then, to the Church, 
the Kingdom of Christ? Loyalty implies ready 
obedience to known laws. 

Let us take the Prayer Book as a practical test, 
its rules and directions as to Fasts, Festivals, Prayer, 
Scriptures, the Sacred Ministry, and the Sacraments. 
Do we neglect and carelessly despise these laws of 
our spiritual country, or are we striving to know 
more of her wise teaching and advice ? 

It is, moreover, the personal relation which kindles 
the most passionate and enduring loyalty, and, there- 
fore, it is well to remember that loyalty to the Church 
of Christ means loyalty to the Person of Jesus, who 
founded that Church — and superintends her growth 
and organism. And true loyalty has this beautiful 
and heroic feature — that it is staunch ; and loyal 
hearts are true to Country or Lord or Friend in 
hours of gloom or of desperate need. So if Christ 
seems captive in His enemies' power, His Name blas- 
phemed, His Throne occupied by the idols of the 
market place, His very subjects forsaking Him, and 
His cry reaches your ears, " Will ye also go away ? " 
let your response come quick, unflinching, chivalrous, 
as that of Thomas, " Let us go that we may die with 
Him ! " 



THE CHURCH AND HER CHILDREN. 177 



Brothers, in this your Festival, call up before your 
eyes a glorious ideal. Picture to yourselves a Parish 
in which every " Member of Christ " is dead to sin 
and alive unto God, every " Child of God " is loving 
to his Father in Heaven and his brethren on earth, 
where every " Heir of Christ's Kingdom " is loyal- 
hearted to the core, obedient to the Church's laws, 
proud of her good name, ready to serve and to sacri- 
fice in her cause who is the Bride of Christ and the 
Spiritual Mother of the faithful ! 

Does the vision seem Utopian, never to be realized 
here below ? Remember, then, for your encourage- 
ment, dear reverend brother, and brethren all, these 
closing words of the text, in God's Book are all the 
Members of Christ written " which clay by day were 
fashioned when as yet there was none of them." 
All unseen is the inner and most essential part of the 
spiritual operation through which the Holy Ghost 
works out the Sanctification of Man, the edifying of 
the Body of Christ. 

In the Mind of the Omnipotent exist already the 
unborn members of His Dear Son: the embryonic 
bones, muscles, nerves, take substance and fashion in 
His Divine Counsel and Purpose, when as yet, to 
human understanding, there is none of them. 

This, then, is the sum of the whole matter — that 
12 



178 THE CHURCH AND HER CHILDREN. 

we strive by repentance, prayer, and faithful use of 
the means of grace, to become more full of life and 
love and loyalty ; then, having done all that is in 
our power, leave the rest to the wisdom, patience 
and omnipotence of Him who sitteth above the earth 
and its waterfloods, who is able to fashion the mem- 
bers of Christ into conformity to the Image of His 
Grace, in Whose Book may all our names stand 
written at the Last Day, — for His Book is the " Book 
of Life " ! 



XXIII. 



SEEKING JESUS. 

" He sought to see Jesus who He was." 

— S. Luke xix. 3. 

Just outside of Jericho, on that road so familiar 
to us all through the story of the Good Samaritan, 
Zacchaeus was watching for Jesus of Nazareth. 
Many reports had reached him in the exercise of 
his office of Architelones, or District Superintendent 
of Taxes, reports which would vary according to 
their source, now of reverent wonder at some great 
truth taught, some great work done, now of Phari- 
saic contempt for " the friend of publicans and sin- 
ners," who "casteth out devils through Beelzebub." 

Of whatever nature the reports were, — friendly or 
adverse, — all must have equally proved that it was no 
common man who was approaching Jericho. And 
so, not only were all the populace eager to welcome 
the noted traveller, but the District Superintendent 
himself " sought to see Jesus who He was." 

Let us ask what his desire meant ? Scripture does 



180 



SEEKING JESUS. 



not, indeed, reveal it, but we may be safe in inferring 
thus much : 

1. Curiosity entered largely into it, perhaps was, 
at first sight, the most prominent and potent element 
in that desire. How widespread this curiosity must 
have been Ave know from the fact related of Herod 
the Tetrarch, that " when he saw Jesus he was ex- 
ceeding glad, for he was desirous to see Him of a 
long season, because he had heard many things of 
Him." (Luke xxiii. 8.) 

2. But, mingled with curiosity, there must have 
been a deeper and nobler, though a secret, and per- 
haps, half conscious motive. I know not how now 
to characterize this motive more precisely than to 
conjecture that it began with a half confessed dis- 
appointment with himself and his life, a mute 
and scarce acknowledged longing for something 
better more honorable and pure, with a vague hope 
that he might see in Jesus something to make him 
better, to cure this uneasiness of his heart. 

3. Finally, it is probable that his conception of the 
approaching Saviour was quite vague and inadequate, 
that he had no clear knowledge as to the real charac- 
ter and office of Jesus, otherwise, it would scarcely 
have been said, " He sought to see Jesus who He 
wasP 



SEEKING JESUS. 



181 



That this desire to see Jesus was no mere idle 
sentiment we may gather from the energy and per- 
severance which Zacchaeus displayed in overcoming 
the two hindrances to his purpose, one external and 
the other in himself. 

Kay these obstacles did him good, by calling out 
his zeal and his humility — zeal, in running beyond 
the press of people, and humility, in climbing the 
sycamore tree, which, displayed his own personal 
defect of stature, and openly proclaimed his eager- 
ness to behold the Man. 

And his reward was, (as the reward of the Lord is 
wont to be,) "more than he desired or deserved." 

"When Jesus came to the place, He looked up 
and saw him." Zacchaeus had only been anxious to 
see Christ ; he had probably never imagined that 
amid the crowds Christ would perceive and notice 
him. Yet more : not only is the Gracious Eye resting 
upon him and reading his inmost soul, knowing more 
of the sins, and the longing, and the capacities of 
that heart than Zacchaeus knew himself, but the 
Loving Voice of the Good Shepherd " that knoweth 
His sheep, and calleth His own sheep by name," 
calleth him — " Zacchaeus come down quickly, for to- 
day I must abide in thy house." Yes, the Saviour 
must abide there, not for His own sake, but for that 



182 



SEEKING JESUS. 



of His host, for He had come to seek and to save 
"that which was lost." So on that very day on 
which Zacchaeus desired, probably from mixed and 
imperfect motives, to see Jesus, on that very day 
" salvation came to his house." May the Holy Spirit 
enable us to apply this story to our own times and 
our own hearts. 

In our century, as in every age there have been, 
there are many men and women and children who, 
like Zacchaeus, are " desiring to see Jesus." 

Christianity and its truths, the Church and the 
means of Grace, through which Jesus now moves 
and works in the world, must ever excite the curiosity 
of thinking minds. But besides curiosity there is in 
almost every human heart, even of the prosperous 
and successful, the half confessed disappointment, the 
desire for a nobler life, the feeling that if they could 
but see Jesus, come to Him with simple faith as 
others have done, He might make them better. 

And yet many are held back from coming regularly 
to church, from being confirmed and communicating, 
that is from earnestly seeking Jesus in the w^ay along 
which He has promised to come, by the third con- 
sideration — the inadequacy of their conceptions of 
who Jesus is, what His Religion and Church are, and 
what the blessings are which He will give them. In 



SEEKING JESUS. 



183 



plain words, they have a quite vague and inadequate 
idea of the good that the Religion and Church of 
Jesus has to offer them. 

Zacchaeus supplies the answer, he was accepted and 
blest ; the illumination came because " He sought to 
see Jesus in the way." 

Again, in coming to see Jesus we are hindered by 
others, affairs of daily life, even of the so-called 
religious world, the talk about religion, which does 
not lead us to the Saviour. 

Then there are our own personal defects. One is 
tried in this way, another in that, all equally are too 
little of stature in themselves and in the world to see 
Jesus as He is ready to shew himself to us. The 
religion of the multitude, or popular talk about 
religious matters, is no true vision of Jesus. 

These difficulties therefore call for energy and 
humility ; energy, to do our own part well ; humility, 
to confess by deed and word that we need something 
higher than ourselves to enable us really to rise 
out of the heat and dust of life that we may see 
Jesus. 

So we too must climb, climb by prayer, and the 
faithful use of the means of Grace into the Tree of 
the Church. We may doubt the value of the Church, 
but let us climb, in simple obedience, into the upper 



184 



SEEKING JESUS. 



branches of the Holy Tree, and we shall have what 
we seek for. For the reward of obedient seeking is 
that Jesus sees, calls us to Himself, and comes to 
abide with us. 

What, then, is the meaning of Jesus coming to us, 
to our homes and our hearts? It means that the 
essence of Religion is in the heart, in loving welcome 
of the Saviour, in obeying His laws, in praying to 
Him, and seeking to love Him more and more. 

This is no mere figure. He who is the Truth has 
said, " If a man love Me, he will keep My words, and 
My Father will love him. We will come unto him and 
make Our abode with him." (John xiv. 23.) 

Then, O my brother, seek to see Jesus more and 
more clearly, seek to clear your spiritual vision by 
prayer, by meditation on God's Holy Book, and by 
regular attendance on all the ordinances of His Holy 
Church, " the tree whose leaves are for the healing of 
the nations." Two blessed marks of Christ's Presence 
will signalize His entrance. First is the gift of a true 
repentance for all the imperfections, and failures, and 
sins of the past, a repentance not of barren sorrow, 
but, like that of Zacchseus, proving its sincerity by 
acts of reparation, so far as may be possible, for the 
wrong done. "If anyone see Jesus," says Titus 
Bostrensis, " he cannot abide in sin." And following 



SEEKING JESUS. 



185 



upon this comes the consciousness of joy and peace 
and reconciliation with God and man, the sense of 
being friends with everyone on earth and in heaven, 
the thrice blessed assurance that " to-day is salvation 
come to this house." 



XXIY. 



THE MYSTEEY OF LIFE. 

"So is the Kingdom of God as if a man should 
cast seed into the ground ; and should sleep, and rise 
night and day, and the seed should spring and grow 
up, he knoweth not how. 

— S. Mark iv. 26, 27. 

There is a legend of the American Indians which 
the poet Longfellow has set for us to the magic of 
his musical verse. It paints the condition of the 
people before the gift from heaven of the maize, or 
American corn, and describes the first appearance or 
first cultivation of that life-giving plant. The story 
runs that a great and good chief prayed and fasted 
in the forest for the profit of his people. As he 
roamed beneath its shade, the deer started from the 
thicket, the pheasant and pigeon whirred far away, 
the wild rice and berries filled the air with fragrance, 
the fish leapt from the still, transparent water. He 
looked around and knew how uncertain were these 
means of support for his people, how soon the frost 
would banish the birds, seal up the rivers, and strip 



THE MYSTERY OF LIFE. 



187 



the fruit-bearing trees. "Master of Life," he cried, 
desponding, "must our lives depend on these things?" 
And then, on the fourth, day of his fasting, he sees 
a vision, sees a youth approaching, " coming through 
the purple twilight." Standing in the open doorway, 
he looked with pity on the wasted form of the chief, 
revealed to him that he came as the friend of man, 
from the Master of Life descending, and that by 
struggling and by wrestling he should gain what he 
had prayed for. 

Three days they wrestle till the sunset, and on the 
third the chief prevails, and the unearthly visitant 
lies lifeless on the earth before him. Then he made 
the grave as he had been commanded and laid the 
earth " soft and loose and light above him," and day 
by day he went to wait and watch beside it. " Till at 
length a small green feather from the earth shot 
slowly upward, and another, and another, and before 
the summer ended, stood the corn in all its beauty, with 
its shining robes about it." Then the chief called his 
friends, and told them of his wondrous vision, of his 
wrestling and his triumph, of this new gift to the 
nations, " This new gift of the Great Spirit." 

I have chosen this story of the cultivation of maize 
because it introduces the cornfields and the harvest 
to us as a living and loving friend to man, almost a 



188 



THE MYSTERY OF LIFE. 



conscious gift from the Master of Life. And, indeed, 
as we have passed this last month up and down the 
country, " and seen the yellow corn like a sea of gold 
and heard the rustling of its slender stems, rolling in 
waves not of death but of life," as this has been safely 
gathered in for the most part, as the Egyptian crops, 
" until our garners are full and plenteous with all 
manner of store," has not the heart of the nation 
risen with one great heave of relief, of gladness, ought 
not the people to use the Harvest Festivals as their 
voice wherewith to sing Te Deum to Him "who 
giveth food to all flesh, for His mercy endureth for 
ever " ? 

" So wrought into our lives " (is the golden corn) 
one writes — " so dear in its associations, its seed time 
and harvest : Ruth gleaning ; the patient cattle bend- 
in o* under the voke : even the Master Himself, who 
went through the cornfields one Sabbath eighteen 
hundred years ago, and His 'disciples plucked the 
ears of corn and did eat, rubbing them in their hands.' " 
I will ask you then, this evening, to think of the crops 
of the earth as the story paints them, coming to our 
race as a precious gift from the Master of Life. Let 
us look at our friend this harvest-tide and see what 
high and heavenly thoughts we may glean from the 
contemplation : 



THE MYSTERY OF LIFE. 



189 



" The earth bringeth forth fruit of itself, first the 
blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the 
ear." 

This is in a verse the life-story of the cornfields, 
and what an epitome of all earthly existence it is ; a 
magic lantern slide, so to say, giving us a sudden 
brief glimpse of the Mystery of Life. 

What a mystery it is ! The seed is put into the 
ground, apparently a lifeless thing, and "the man 
rises night and day," and soon, he knoweth not how, 
out springs a quite different looking thing — "first the 
blade," " the small green feather." What has brought 
this forth ? Life. There, in that sprouting corn, is 
the mystery of birth all the world over. And the man 
watches, and "the plant grows, he knoweth not 
how," sometimes slowly, so that he only marks its 
progress after some days absence ; sometimes very 
rapidly, when in warm, moist weather the Avhole 
earth clothes herself in a thick mantle of verdure, 
and one almost seems to hear the upward thrusting 
of her children. 

There is the second mystery, Growth. Who is the 
agent, the magician, who brings from a slender leaf 
the tall stalk, and opens the head of ears, and swells 
the corn ? And again we must answer, Life ! 

No warm earth, or rain, or sun, will make the 



190 



THE MYSTERY OF LIFE. 



stone shoot forth, or the dead wood blossom. " Can 
a man by thought add one cubit to his stature \ " No. 
The mystery of growth as well as of birth has but 
one explanation, and that is the power and energy of 
" Life." 

And in the cornfield we see, do we not, the third 
great mystery of Life acted out before us. We see 
the law of Death working out the greater triumph of 
the law of Life. " Except a corn of wheat fall into 
the ground and die, it abideth alone." Ay, but before 
it dies, the life has passed forth forever from the cor- 
rupting and perishing husk, passed upwards again 
into a new corn plant that springs from the deathbed 
of the old, so life again, as the Phoenix from its 
ashes, rises over and through Death and Decay, Con- 
queror and King. And, my brothers, what is this 
strange power of Life, which we see thus each year 
treading out its appointed path, through birth and 
growth and death in ever widening circles, in ever 
richer and fuller and more liberal gifts? What is 
Life ? We see what it does ; we should count him a 
fool who could not tell the living from the dead. But 
what is Life itself? What is it to be alive ? May we 
not say with reverence that Life is the Will and the 
Breath of Almighty God working in and through 
His creatures f Earthly life, the life of the creature, is 



THE MYSTERY OF LIFE. 



191 



a spark from the flame of Eternal Life, ever glowing 
upwards and around till it joins once more the heart 
of Him who is " a consuming fire." Do we think, my 
friends, enough of this great verity, that it is the 
Life of God alone which is the parent of all life? 
His Breath that fertilizes the plant, as well as sus- 
tains the man? — that it is equally true of all living 
creatures which dumbly or eloquently praise their 
Maker, that " in Him we live and move and have our 
being"? 

Look again at the harvest field, does it not bring a 
comforting thought about the sacrifice of life in this 
world? Does it not throw a hopeful light upon the 
mystery of being, of sickness and death around us ? 
We look at the rich, yellow, clustering ears, and as 
we look the command is given, " Thrust in thy sickle 
and reap." Why ? Why must this law of death be 
a necessary factor in the problem of life ? Why must 
the seed fall into the ground and die ere it brings 
forth ? Ah, but what is it that dies ? Nothing (and 
mark this well), nothing that is really alive ! Those 
grains of wheat rustling in the breeze, are golden 
prisons within whose walls Life lies encased. They 
cannot expand further, they have no higher step to 
climb ; but Life longs to rise, longs to be fruitful and 
multiply, and this can only be by the bursting of its 



192 



THE MYSTERY OF LIFE. 



prison walls. So in the earth the walls dissolve, and 
Life, all that was really living, steps forth green, fruit- 
ful, and free. Ay, and out of the very corruption of 
decay, Life draws nourishment and beauty, the life of 
the poor flesh and blood that lies mouldering, passing 
into the violet that blooms upon the grave ! 

"So, Lord, to those who sleep in Thee 
Shall new and glorious bodies be." 

Lastly look at the barns, and the stores of golden 
grain ; they set us thinking again in a different way, 
about the Sacrifice of Life ; of life for life. 

Those ears of corn, one of two things may happen 
to them ; they may be sown in the fields and live 
again, or they may be ground into flour to feed the 
people. This is sacrifice ; the life of the corn for the 
life of man. So in the case of animal food some have 
felt this so strongly as to refuse to kill any beast for 
food. 

And yet what is the Will of God ? Is it not, gen- 
erally, that lower forms of life should pass into, while 
they nourish, higher ? and this, as yet, cannot be with- 
out pain. And is not this the Divine comment on 
the mystery of suffering, " "Without shedding of blood, 
there is no remission " ? Was not the Eternal Son 
content to be made man, content for His Body to be 



THE MYSTERY OF LIFE. 



193 



broken and His Blood shed, that He might be " the 
True Bread from Heaven " ? What a parable, then, 
is the sacrifice of the cornfields of the meaning and 
blessedness of all true self-sacrifice? The wheat is 
ground in the mill, it will spring from the moist earth 
and wave its stems in the breeze no more, but its 
sacrificed life is taken into, and sustains the life of 
another being, higher in the ranks of the sons of God ! 
So Jesus our God humbled Himself even to the death 
upon the Cross, that rising, He might come to His 
own, bringing to them His Life, by feeding on which 
they might rise towards the Throne, and " be made 
partakers of the Divine nature." But there is this 
difference : He was not to rise into our nature, but 
to draw us unto His own, as S. Augustine wrote that 
he had heard as the Yoice of Christ saying to him, 
" Nec tu me mutabis in te, sicut cibum carnis tuce, sed 
tu mutaberis in Me." 

Ah, selfish, self-loving heart of man, learn this les- 
son from the cornfields. 

Thou say est in blind self-love, " Give me something : 
let me grow great, and rich, and powerful ; let others 
give of theirs to meP But the cornfields sing, " We 
rise to higher life and greater good b}^ sacrificing our 
own life, and becoming the food of man." Thus is 
the life of wheat drawn up into and absorbed in the 
13 



194 



THE MYSTERY OF LIFE. 



life of man, as his should be drawn upwards and 
" made partaker of the Divine," for the secret of a 
noble life and a blessed one here and hereafter is to 
seek to do Our Father's Will " as it is done in 
Heaven." 



XXV. 



THE MEMOEY OF THE JUST. 

"The righteous shall be had in everlasting remem- 
brance." 

— Psalms cxii. 6. 

In the vault of the heavens at night we may at 
times see two kinds of lights. The fixed and endur- 
ing light of the stars shining on through the ages, 
and the startling light of a meteor or comet which 
flashes through the black fields and disappears again 
into the darkness. In the fields of human history 
the same spectacle may be witnessed : from age to 
age strange portents of genius and power flash 
across its page : an Alexander, or Zenghis Khan ; 
an Attila, or ISTapoleon, and for the time men are 
dazzled by the blaze of vaingloiw. But the lights 
which persist in their steady silent shining, though 
for a while eclipsed by the comet and the meteor, 
shine on when these erratic bodies have vanished 
into space. So through the long night of early 
history some few names shine down to us through 
the ages with undimmed or added lustre, a Con- 



196 THE MEMORY OF THE JUST. 

fucius, an Alfred, a S. Louis, a Francis of Assisi, for 
their light was no mere evanescent flash of human 
genius, but a ray of the true and heavenly glory 
imparted by the Everlasting Light. They were good 
and just men. "And," says the wise man, "the 
memory of the just is blessed, for the labor of the 
just tendeth to life, but the fruit of the wicked is 
sin." Nay, the assertion may be ventured that even 
in the cases of great men whose names are handed 
down for great achievements, the only part of their 
fame which will endure will be the good that, con- 
sciously or unconsciously, they were instrumental in 
doing. 

"The righteous shall be had in everlasting remem- 
brance." These words express a true and whole- 
some law. The fame of great conquerors has before 
now wrought harm by stirring up adventurers to 
emulate or surpass their exploits, the renown even 
of criminals has beguiled the thoughtless into an 
insane desire to rival their unhappy notoriety, for 
" the fruit of the wicked is sin," but the memory of 
good men and ivomen has often been the blessed 
means of inciting others to follow their good ex- 
amples. 

Not a few of those whose lives have been lovely of 
examples of devotion and holiness, received their first 



THE MEMORY OF THE JUST. 197 

impulse from the companionship or the memory of 
some friend, or the story of some holy life. " The 
labor of the righteous tendeth to life." 

This great truth and responsibility is recognized 
in the Bible, alike in the Old and New Testaments. 
It is recognized also in the Christian Church. 

First, and in the highest sense of all, she has been 
most careful to insure, by the reverent and frequent 
obedience to her Lord's injunction, " Do this in remem- 
brance of Me," by the yearly observance of the Days 
of His Nativity, Crucifixion, Resurrection, and Ascen- 
sion, by the regular reading of the Gospels, the out- 
ward memorials of the Cross and other holy symbols, 
that " Jesus Christ the Righteous shall be had in 
everlasting remembrance." 

Next, from very early times it was customary to en- 
roll the names of the Apostles and Martyrs on the 
Ecclesiastical Calendar, and to commemorate their 
names and good examples by dedicating churches in 
their honour, and by celebrating their birthday into 
life eternal by an Annual Festival. 

" He that receiveth you receiveth Me, and he that 
despiseth you despiseth Me," Christ had said, and so 
it was ever felt that, in thus honoring the Blessed 
Saints of God, honour was being paid to Him from 
whom they had received grace. 



198 THE MEMORY OF THE JUST. 

And further, not merely were these heroes of the 
Cross thus held in yearly remembrance, but all the 
faithful. The double Festival of All Souls and All 
Saints was especially instituted for the yearly com- 
memoration of all the faithful who are at rest in 
Christ. The Diptychs or tablets on either side of the 
Altar were inscribed with the names of the faithful 
departed, which were from time to time read out in 
the course of the Divine Services, as an act of 
solemn commemoration. Finally, the reverent care 
for graves and cemeteries, which has distinguished 
the Christian Church, has been the outward expres- 
sion of her desire to fulfill the precept, " The righteous 
shall be had in everlasting remembrance," and to 
realize the Communion of Saints. 

Let me, in conclusion, point to the wisdom of the 
Church in appointing these various means for insur- 
ing the observance of this Christian duty from 
generation to generation. We know amongst men 
what a difference there is. In one family a child 
leaves home in early years for education or for work, 
no letters are written, his name is rarely mentioned ? 
his very existence is almost forgotten. In another 
every care is taken to prevent this, the birthday is 
yearly remembered, letters and photographs are 
interchanged, affection is kept alive and warm in 



THE MEMORY OF THE JUST. 199 

readiness for a future family reunion. These different 
kinds of conduct do not, it is true, affect the reality 
of that son's existence and love, but they affect our 
own understanding and realizing of it, and the joy 
with which we anticipate a future meeting. Not in 
a sad spirit of bereavement should we then remem- 
ber the blessed dead, but rather with calm trustful- 
ness and hope. " Our Christian friends who are 
called away," wrote S. Cyprian, " and are released 
from this world by the Lord, are not to be lamented ; 
no, Ave know well that they are not lost, but are sent 
before, as those set forth on a journey. If we be- 
lieve in Christ, let us trust joyfully to His Words. 
Who that is hastening to his friends does not pray 
for a fair wind that he may see them the sooner? 
Paradise is our home, a multitude of dear ones are 
waiting there for our coming, who, secure of their 
own immortality, are anxious for ours. There will 
be the glorious company of Apostles, the jubilant 
company of Prophets, the innumerable army of 
Martyrs, bearing crowns of victory. To them, dearly 
beloved, let us hasten ; let us pray to be soon with 
them and with Christ." 

In our own Parish, brethren, we have lately had 
much to make us sad ; several faithful communicants 
have been called away, and their departure has left 



200 



THE MEMORY OF THE JUST. 



vacant places in our homes and in our Church. Yes ; 
and yet, while we mourn these losses, let us be grate- 
ful, too, for the past, grateful for the belief in the liv- 
ing intercommunion of all who are in Christ. While 
the Church on earth loses their presence and aid, the 
Church above is the gainer, and we may well believe 
that their thoughts and prayers are with us still. 
Let us then often and heartily make our own the 
closing clause of the Church Militant Prayer : " We 
also Mess Thy Holy Name for all Thy servants 
departed this life in Thy faith and fear, oeseeching 
Thee to give us grace so to follow their good examples, 
that, with them,, we may he partakers of Thy Heavenly 
Kingdom," 



XXVI. 



THE WORSHIP OF THE CHURCH 
MILITANT. 

We have an Altar. 

— Heb. xiii. 10. 

The main scope and object of the Epistle to the 
Hebrews may be thus stated : We read in Acts xxi. 
and elsewhere that there were a vast number of the 
Jews, and " a great company of the Priests," who 
were " obedient to the Faith." These continued to 
be devout worshippers in their old Temple services, 
while also joining daily, or at least on every Lord's 
Day, in the distinctively Christian Worship, the 
" Breaking of Bread," or " Celebration of the Holy 
Communion." Such a mixture of the two worships 
seems strange to us now, but it is an undoubted fact. 

This blending of the two religions was beginning 
to cease ; the heads of Temple and Synagogue were 
casting out avowed Christians, and the threatening 
siege of Jerusalem preluded the destruction of the 
Temple and its Worship. The Hebrew Christians were 
then in a two- fold danger, either of giving up their 



202 THE WORSHIP OF THE CHURCH MILITANT. 

Christianity for the sake of being restored to their old 
national Church, or, as all their religious training and 
belief were.bound up with the Levitical worship, their 
Faith itself was in danger when they were cut off from 
it. The writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews sets 
himself to meet both these dangers. He shows from 
the Old Testament itself that the Levitical System was 
only intended to be imperfect, temporary, and nation- 
al, and that it was to be merged in Christianity as its 
legitimate successor. 

The Temple was the type of the Catholic, or Uni- 
versal Church of Christ, the Aaronic Priesthood of the 
Priesthood of the Christian, the Sacrifices of the One 
Offering: of Christ, the Mincha and Drink Offering 
of the Eucharistic Sacrifice of Praise and Thanksgiv- 
ing. 

" We have an Altar." It is as if the writer said, 
" Why fret at being cut off from the Temple and its 
Altar of Sacrifice ? There, it is true, you devoutly 
worshipped as the Morning and Evening Sacrifices were 
offered. Those Sacrifices were of Divine appointment, 
memorials in anticipation of the One Eternal Offering ; 
in the Christian Church we also have an Altar, where- 
on the Divine Mystery of the Eucharist, the continual 
Commemoration of the Sacrifice of Christ, is solemnly 
offered before God and man." 



THE WORSHIP OF THE CHURCH MILITANT. 203 

It is almost startling to those of us who have not 
studied the matter, to realize the immensely central 
and important place which the Sacrament of the Altar 
held in the primitive Church, as -well as in subsequent 
ao-es. " The Breaking of the Bread," which was the 
earliest Apostolic name for this service, is mentioned 
as the one distinctive Christian service for which the 
Disciples met on the Lord's Day, and probably more 
frequently. 

" They continued steadfastly ... in c the 
Breaking of Bread,' and ' the Prayers,' " or, as Dean 
Alford interprets it, in the stated Hours of the Tem- 
ple Prayers. 

So we read in Acts xx. 7, " Upon the First Day of 
the week, when the Disciples came together to Break 
Bread." 

So in i Cor. xi. 20, S. Paul's directions are entirely 
concerned with the Christian gathering for the pur- 
pose of Celebrating the Eucharist. 

"While the Apostles and early Christians met for 
prayer and exhortation at all times and in all places, 
in the house, on the seashore, and in the Temple, 
" there is," saj T s Mr. Sadler, " no reference to any 
stated assembly of Christians on the Lord's Day, ex- 
cept for the Celebration of the Holy Communion." 
"With this the very earliest accounts of Christian wor- 



204 THE WORSHIP OF THE CHURCH MILITANT. 



ship agree. Justin Martyr, writing within fifty years 
of the publishing of the last book of the New Testa- 
ment, describes the Sunday service of the Christian 
Church as consisting mainly of the Eucharist. With 
this fact also agrees the celebrated letter of Pliny, 
Governor of Bithynia, to the Emperor Hadrian, in 
which he mentions the assembling of Christians in the 
early hours of the dawn, and their pledging them- 
selves in a Sacrament to abstain from all evil. " The 
Ancient Church," says the late Bishop Wordsworth, 
" recognized a prediction of the Eucharistic Offering 
in the words of Malachi, ' from the rising of the sun 
unto the going down of the same My Name shall be 
great among the Gentiles, and in every place incense 
shall be offered in My Name, and a pure offering,' 
or ' Mincha.' " " This," says Justin Martyr, " is a 
figure of the Bread and the Cup in the Eucharist." 
" It is certain," says the learned Dr. Grabe, a that the 
Fathers of the Church contemporary with, or suc- 
ceeding the Apostles, regarded the Holy Eucharist as 
the Evangelical Sacrifice, offered on the Altar in the 
Bread and the Wine as Sacred Gifts to God the 
Father, such offerings beino- before Consecration the 
first-fruits as symbols of all His creatures, and after 
Consecration being offered " [for the memorial or 
Representation of the Oblation of Christ.] 



THE WORSHIP OF THE CHURCH MILITANT. 205 

In strict accordance with this we find that the 
name Liturgy, or Divine Service, was always applied 
to the office for the Eucharist, and that the earliest 
fragments of Christian Services which have come 
down to us are Eucharistic Services. In the Clemen- 
tine, and the Liturgy of S. James, which are almost 
Apostolic, we find the same main feature as in our 
own. 

In all Liturgies the central and essential features 
are the same, — the Priest recites the act of Institution, 
Consecrating, as in the Person of Christ, the elements 
of Bread and Wine, and then solemnly offering Them 
up before the Father. 

That this is recognized as the primitive ideal of 
Christian worship in our own Branch of the Church 
Catholic, is proved from the fact that the ancient Col- 
lect Epistle and Gospel are set in the Prayer Book for 
every Sunday and Holy Day in the Church's year. 
Yet this statement of the simple historical fact that 
the whole Christian Church in Apostolic days met for 
the Celebration of the Holy Eucharist as the One 
Divinely Commanded Christian service on every 
Lord's Day at least, is something startling. Many 
have been reared, in the traditions of the last three or 
four generations of our Church, to consider a quarterly 
or monthly celebration as the normal standard, and 



206 THE WORSHIP OF THE CHURCH MILITANT. 

that service to be intended for the comparatively 
small body of communicants. Yet those who in more 
recent times have grown to know and love this great 
service, not only quietly said in early morning, but 
rendered with all the beauty of solemn and fitting 
music and ritual, realize that this is in very truth the 
Christian's Divine Service of Praise and Thanksgiving, 
in which the Church on earth joins with Angels and 
Archangels and All the Company of Heaven. 

In face of these facts we are led to ask with 
wonder how this Apostolic practice could ever have 
fallen into desuetude in our Branch of the Church. 

One reason may very probably be found in the 
blasphemous practice which prevailed last century 
in England of making Communion a test of good 
citizenship, every member of Parliament being 
obliged to be a communicant. What could be more 
degrading or sacrilegeous, or more revolting to a sin- 
cerely religious mind ? Another reason, doubtless, 
was the prevalence in later years of the subjective 
school, which regarded the act as a mere pledge of our 
own faith, a setting forth of our own remembrance 
of the Death of Christ. But the " Sacrifice of Praise 
and Thanksgiving " is one of the recognized titles of 
the Service, in the Latin Rite as well as in our own, 
and this title cannot refer — as Mr. Sadler shows — to 



THE WORSHIP OF THE CHURCH MILITANT. 207 

the mere words of the Office, for, with the exception 
of the " Sanctus" there has been little of direct 
praise. It must, therefore, apply to the Eucharistic 
action itself, viz., the Consecration and grateful offer- 
ing up of the Blessed Sacrament by the whole 
Church, in thankful remembrance before God of the 
Death, Resurrection, and Life of Christ. 

The realization of this truth is returning by de- 
grees in our Communion. Already there is a grow- 
ing demand from the laity of the Church that the 
Holy Eucharist, solemnly and reverently rendered, 
shall be the people's service, the principal act of 
worship every Sunday morning. 

The Churches in our large cities, where this is the 
case, are rapidly increasing, and the time, I trust, is 
not far distant when it will not be necessary for the 
Priest to teach the people, saying : " Know the 
Lord " in this great service, " for all will know Me," 
saith the Lord, " from the least even to the great- 
est," and " in every place Incense shall be daily 
offered in My name, and the Pure Offering " of the 
Christian Sacrifice of Praise and Thanksgiving. 



XXVII. 



THE WORSHIP OF THE CHURCH 
TRIUMPHANT. 

"After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, 
which no one could number, . . . stood before 
the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white 
robes, and palms in their hands ; and cried with a 
loud voice, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon 
the throne, and unto the Lamb." 

—Rev. vii. 9, 10. 

" Who are these like stars appearing, 
These before God's Throne who stand? 
Each a golden crown is wearing, 
"Who are all this glorious Band ? 
Alleluia, hark ! they sing, 
Praising loud their Heavenly King." 

And the answer comes: 

" These are they who have contended 
For the Saviour's honour long ; 
These who well the fight sustained, 
Triumph by the Lamb have gained." 

We have all an interest in this question and answer 
for if, through the Grace and Mercy of God, we at 



THE WORSHIP OF THE CHURCH TRIUMPHANT. 209 

tain unto that Blessed Home, these will be our fellow- 
citizens, our companions, our friends. We have also 
an interest in studying, and in pondering over, those 
intimations of the life of Paradise and its occupations, 
of which here and there a glimpse is afforded. 

That there will be a variety of occupation in the 
Heavenly life, proportioned to the capacities of each, 
seems at least to be fairly deduced from Revelation. 
Our Lord takes the analogy of our life here as a 
parallel to that above, and teaches us to pray, " Thy 
Will be done on earth as it is in Heaven : " which seems 
to imply that as God allots to His creatures here a 
variety of tasks, so will it be hereafter. 

One work, however, there will be, the highest of 
all, which will be common to all, — the work of Divine 
Worship. In the Book of the Revelation we are 
shown as in a vision, and by type and figure, many 
mysterious glimpses of the future. And amidst the 
strange and awful scenes we have also a majestic 
picture of the united and public worship of Heaven. 

Let us pause and reflect upon S. John's description, 
on this All Saints' Day. Certain features are clear 
and fixed amidst some things which are mystical and 
allegorical. 

There is in the midst of Heaven the Throne of the 
Majesty of God, whereon the Divine Presence is 
14 



210 THE WORSHIP OF THE CHURCH TRIUMPHANT. 

revealed. In chapter iv. the Almighty is revealed 
and worshipped as the Creator. The four Cherubim 
or Living Creatures, representing all Created Life, are 
shown us as in perpetual adorat'on of their Maker, 
they rest not day nor night saying, "Holy, Holy, 
Holy." The four and twenty Elders, the Patriarchs 
of the Hebrew, and Apostles of the Christian 
Church, representing the Spiritual Society, respond 
to the praise of Creation by a definite act of wor- 
ship. They rise from their seats, casting down 
their crowns, and falling down before the Throne, 
and worship God with the words, " Thou art worthy, 
O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power, for 
Thou hast Created all things." 

This may be described as the first division of 
the Heavenly service. Then chapter v. introduces 
us to a new phase — the great work of Eedemp- 
tion. The Presence of the Mystic Lamb appears in 
the midst of the Throne, typical of the Eternal Son, 
the Kedeemer of the world. And as He takes the 
Book of Doom from His Father's Hands there 
begins the second great act of Divine Worship. 
The four Living Creatures with the Patriarchs 
and Apostles fall down before the Lamb ; having 
golden harps and golden vials full of odors, " which 
are the prayers of Saints," and they sing a new Song, 



THE WORSHIP OF THE CHURCH TRIUMPHANT. 211 



the Song of the Redeemed, " Thou art worthy to 
take the Booh . . . for thou wast slain and hast 
Redeemed us to God by Thy Blood." Then the Angel 
Chorus pours forth its silver chant of thanksgiving 
to the Lamb, and every creature in Heaven, Earth, 
and Sea, St. John heard, sa}nng, " Blessing and honour 
and glory and power be unto Him that sitteth upon 
the Throne and unto the LambT This ends the second 
part of the Service, and, in fact, completes it, but in 
the seventh chapter we have a third feature intro- 
duced which is of living and personal interest. 

In the seventh chapter S. John beholds a new and 
vast congregation assembled to join in the worship. 
" A great multitude, which no man can number," 
stood before the Lamb and added their song of 
praise, " Salvation unto our God that sitteth upon 
the Throne and unto the Lamb" This same vision 
is repeated in chapter xiv., where the white robed 
Saints chant a new song before the Throne and the 
Lamb — a song which no man can learn but they — 
and the voice of the Heavenly Worship comes down 
to the Apostle's ears " as the voice of many waters." 

Such, brethren, is S. John's picture of the Public 
United Worship of Heaven, and we see that there 
are certain features of it which are full of instruction 
and of interest. 



212 THE WORSHIP OF THE CHURCH TRIUMPHANT. 

Heavenly worship consists almost exclusively of 
direct acts of adoration and praise and thanksgiving, 
accompanied by a certain reverent ritual — the falling 
down, and the casting off the golden crowns in a 
fitting sequence. It is first the Cherubim then the 
Elders of the Church who lead, and the Chorus of 
Angels which comes in its due place. The thanks- 
giving of the White Robed Redeemed is chanted by 
them, and then again a Chorus of Angels swells up, 
music of harps is heard, and the majestic roll of 
choral song " as the voice of many waters." Again, 
all mists of human error have melted away in that 
clear atmosphere. The Elders of the Hebrew Church 
and of the Christian are united in adoration of the 
Lamb, as in fulfilment of our Lord's words, " Your 
father Abraham rejoiced to see my day." 

Once more there is a wondrous intercommunion 
and fellowship between the worship of Heaven and 
Earth. S. John, in chapter v., is describing the 
Heavenly Worship and the Angels' song of praise, 
and in the same breath continues, " And every creat- 
ure which is in Heaven and on Earth and under the 
Earth, and such as are in the Sea, heard I saying, 
' Blessing and honour be unto Him that sitteth upon 
the Throne and unto the Lamb? " 

If then, as the Psalmist exhorts, "all beasts and 



THE WORSHIP OF THE CHURCH TRIUMPHANT. 213 

cattle, fowls of the air, fishes of the sea, as well as 
young' men and maidens, old men and children," may 
" praise the name of the Lord," if from "every creat- 
ure that has breath " in ways incomprehensible to us, 
a great undertone of praise is ascending to the floor of 
Heaven and joining with that pure Worship, what a 
glorious hopefulness and grandeur, what majestic sig- 
nificance, is given to the solemn worship of the Militant 
Church on earth ! 

When we assemble in God's House to unite in 
solemn and joyful worship thanksgiving and adora- 
tion, when the Priest stands at the Altar and Cele- 
brates the glorious Eucharistic Commemoration of the 
Sacrifice of the Death of Christ, and we sing with the 
Cherubim, " Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God of Hosts, 
Heaven and Earth are full of Thy Glory" let us 
realize that our worship on earth touches, and is ab- 
sorbed in, the Worship of Heaven. 

Then what a privilege it is to which the Church 
calls all men, the privilege of rehearsing for the 
Heavenly Service, " of learning here by faith and love, 
songs of praise to sing above " ! 

People abstain from Church going, or they are very 
infrequent and irregular, they cannot appreciate the 
.duty to God of giving Him Divine Worship. They 
tell you, perhaps, that their minds are not in tune, that 



214 THE WORSHIP OF THE CHURCH TRIUMPHANT. 



people who go to Church are no better than those who 
do not, that they will not be hypocrites and pretend 
to be devout Christians when they are nothing of the 
kind ! Granted, dear brother or sister, all you say — 
but have you looked at it from this point of view : If 
you were going abroad on a particular work or line 
of business, and purposed to make your home in a dis- 
tant land, would you not see the value of learning 
the language, the customs, the history of your future 
fellow citizens ? 

Now you look up, at such a time as this, to the 
Heavenly Country, you picture the forms of loved 
ones living therein, and entering into all the fulness 
of that Supernal Life. You hear their well-remem- 
bered tones helping to swell " the voice of many 
waters," and you hope to be with them, to enter into 
the joy of their fife, after you pass hence. Does it 
never occur to you that, if you care so little to worship 
God here as a natural part of your life, when you 
come into that company you will feel like an ignorant 
young man from the country, who is suddenly invited 
to fill a position which demands both culture and a 
love of learning ? How ashamed he feels of the oppor- 
tunities wasted, how out of place amid the men of 
learning, how useless ! " There was the school," he 
thinks, " there were the teachers ; I might have gone 



THE WORSHIP OF THE CHURCH TRIUMPHANT. 215 



when the bell rang, and grown to know and love it 
all. Surely I have been a fool to stay away and neg- 
lect my education." 

It is difficult to doubt that such will be the feeling 
of many who deliberately put religion on one side, and 
rarely or never join in the worship of the Church 
Militant. It seems sad that it should be so, sad that 
any should deprive themselves of one of the greatest 
blessings and joys of earth, sadder to think that they 
are, by their neglect of duties here, preparing for 
themselves hereafter disappointment, and a schooling, 
hard perhaps and humiliating, in the rudiments of 
Religion, which might have been so easily mastered 
on earth. 

For myself, I cannot realize what life would be 
without the strengthening and uplifting refreshment 
of Divine Service, and especially of the Eucharistic 
Worship, which is our nearest earthly approach to the 
Heavenly pattern. 

What the spiritual side of life must be, and the con- 
templation of the Life beyond, to those many brothers 
and sisters who never join in the worship of the 
Church, or enter its walls, (except for a funeral), is an 
enigma to me. What ! The churchbell invites us to 
enter the society of the White-robed Throng, to share in 
their life, to unite in that which they prize most dearly, 



216 THE WORSHIP OF THE CHURCH TRIUMPHANT. 

and we will have none of it ! We prefer to read our 
Sunday paper, or write letters, or take a walk! 
Surely, surely it is because we do not think ! " Hark 
the sound of Holy Voices" — pause and listen ! How 
near are we to that glorious company! How may 
words of ours wing their way up, and flock like birds 
into the windows of Heaven, and there, united with 
words, the selfsame words, from lips of the "White- 
Robed Saints, — the Sanctus of Earth with the Sanctus 
of Heaven, blend as one harmonious song, "as the 
voice of many waters " ! 



A SELECTED LIST 



OF THEOLOGICAL BOOKS 



PUBLISHED BY 



LONGMANS, GREEN, & CO., NEW YORK 



REV. ALFRED G. MORTIMER, D.D. 

The Seven Last Words of Our Most Holy Redeemer. With Medi- 
tations on Some Scenes in His Passion. By the Rev. Alfred G. Mor- 
timer, D.D., Rector of St. Mark's, Philadelphia. i2mo. $1.00 

Contents : Meditations on the Passion— I. The Scourging of our Blessed Lord 
— II. The Mockery of our Blessed Lord— III. The Presentation of our Blessed 
Lord to the People— IV. The Cross-bearing of our Blessed Lord— V. The Pierc- 
ing of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ— VI. The Uplifting of the Cross of our 
Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. 

The Three Hours' Agony of our Lord Jesus Christ— Introductory Address 
—The First Word— The Second Word— The Third Word— The Fourth Word— 
The Fifth Word— The Sixth Word— The Seventh Word. 

"The Meditations in this volume were given last Lent (1895) in St. Mark's, 
Philadelphia, at noon on Fridays. Though complete in themselves, they are really 
a continuation of a course on the Passion of our Blessed Lord which had been de- 
livered in St. Mark's the previous Lent. In the latter course the Passion had 
been treated as witnessing as a whole to certain moral virtues. In the present 
series a few scenes in the Passion have been taken in relation to the individual 
soul. The Addresses on the Seven Last Words were given in the same church at 
the Three Hours' Service on Good Friday, 18Q5. Together they form a consecu- 
tive series of Meditations for Holy Week or for the Fridays in Lent."— Extract 
from Preface. 



BISHOP A. C. A. HALL. 

The Virgin Mother. Retreat Addresses on the Life of the Blessed 
Virgin Mary, as Told in the Gospels. With an Appended Essay on 
the Virgin Birth of Our Lord. By the Rt. Rev. A. C. A. Hall, D.D., 
Bishop of Vermont. i2mo. $1.25. 

"It is often said, and the saying is true, that Protestantism and Anglicanism 
have lost something of sweet Christian tenderness in their extreme reaction from 
the semi-idolatrous cultus of the Blessed Virgin which prevailed in the Middle 
Ages. We have not the slightest tendency to that form of doctrinal aberration ; 
nor would it be possible, we suppose, for any clear-minded Englishman or Ameri- 
can to join in the glowing but hyperbolical addresses to the Mother of our Lord 
which are found in the liturgies of Oriental Churches ; yet it does seem that some- 
thing has been lost in our habitual forgetfulness of the human being to whom our 
blessed Lord in His earthly life was nearest and dearest, and who, doubtless, of 
all the sons and daughters of men, was— nay, perhaps still is— nearest and dear- 
est to Him. In this little volume. Bishop Hall very admirablv and delicately dis- 
courses of the Blessed Virgin with the reverent affection which is due to her, and 
yet without the slightest approach to the extravagances which our Church has 
rightly and wisely banished. In a brief appendix he has written a few timely 
words on the subject of the virgin birth of our Lord, considered as an article of 
the Christian faith."— The Church Standard, Philadelphia. 



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AIDS TO THE INNER LIFE. Edited by the Rev. W. H. Hutch- 
ings, M.A., Rector of Kirkby Misperton, Yorkshire. 5 volumes, each 
volume sold separately, as follows : 

32mo, cloth limp. $0.25 
321110, cloth extra. ^ Q 

Of the Imitation of Christ. By Thomas a Kempis. In Four 
Books. 

The Christian Year. Thoughts in Verse for the Sundays and Holy 
Days throughout the Year. 

The Devout Life. By St. Francis de Sales. 

The Hidden Life of the Soul. From the French of Jean Nicolas 
Grou. 

The Spiritual Combat. Together with the Supplement and the 
Path of Paradise. By Laurence Scupoli. 

Uniform with the above : 

The Light of the Conscience. By H. L. Sidney Lear. 
The Spiritual Letters of St. Francis de Sales. 

AVANCINI. Vita et Doctrina Jesu Christi. Ex Quatuor Evan- 
gelistis collecta et in Meditationum Materiam ad Singulos totius Anni 
Dies distributa. Per N. Avancinum, S. J. Ad usum Cleri Anglicani 
accommodavit Presbyter Ignotus. Editio Secunda. i8mo. $1.00 

" Besides its original purpose as a help to meditation, Avancini would make a 
valuable help to the preparation of short sermons. There are in all some 400 
meditations, and each meditation has three points. Almost every one of these 
points would bear amplification into a sermon a few minutes long ; and, if the 
book were used in this way we should hear less than we do from the clergy of 
the difficulty of preparation, and from the laity of the extent to which it is omitted." 
— Guardian. 

BALFOUR. The Foundations of Belief: Being Notes Introductory 
to the Study of Theology. By the Right Hon. Arthur J. Balfour, 
M. P. Fifth Edition. Crown 8vo. $2.00 

BATHE. Works by Anthony Bathe, M.A. 

What I Should Believe. A Simple Manual of Self-instruction for 
Church People. Crown 8vo. $0.75 

A Lent with Jesus. A Plain Guide for Churchmen. Containing 
Readings for Lent and Easter Week, and on the Holy Eucharist. $0.40 

The Christian's Roadbook. By Anthony Bathe and F. H. Buck- 
ham, Vicar of Sledmere, Yorkshire. 

Part I. Devotions. Small 8vo, cloth limp. $0.35 
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Part II. Readings. [Immediately. 



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Vol. IV. The Life Beyond the Grave. 2.00 

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and profound spiritual devotion."— Pacific Churchman, San Francisco. 

BIRCH. The Sacrament of the Lord's Supper according to the 
Teaching of the Primitive Church and of Anglican Divines. By 

Edward Jonathan Birch, M.A., Rector of Overstone and Hon. 
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BODY. Works by the Rev. George Body, D.D., Canon of Durham. 

The Life of Temptation. A Course of Lectures delivered in sub- 
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Street. 6th Edition. Crown Svo. $1.00 

Contexts : The Leading into Temptation— The Rationale of Temptation — 
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End of Temptation. 

The Life of Justification. A Series of Lectures delivered in sub- 
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Contexts : Justification the Want of Humanity— Christ our Justification- 
Union with Christ the Condition of Justification— Conversion and Justification— 
—The Life of Justification — The Progress and End of Justification. 

The School of Calvary ; or, Laws of Christian Life Revealed from 
the Cross. A Course of Lectures delivered in substance at All Saints', 
Margaret Street. Small Svo. $1.00 

The Life of Love. A Course of Lent Lectures. i2mo. $1.25 

In his treatment of the subject, Canon Body draws out from the life and recorded 
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love : of separation : of consecration : of association ; of joy which sounds 
through every versicle of the magnificat of sorrow : and in every stage a life of 
ministry. How admirably he has drawn these lessons from the Gospel story of 
the Blessed Virgin can only be appreciated by a reader of his lectures." — Church 
Standard, Philadelphia. 

BODY. The Permanent Value of the Book of Genesis as an Integral 
Part of the Christian Revelation. By the Rev. C. W. E. Body, 
M.A., D.C.L. , Professor of Old Testament Literature and Interpreta- 
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$1.50 



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The Way of Life. A Book of Prayers and Instruction for the Young 
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i8mo. $0.60 

Meditations on the Life and Mysteries of our Lord and Saviour 
Jesus Christ. From the French' By the Compiler of " The Treas- 
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Vol. I. The Hidden Life of our Lord. $1.50 
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Part I., $2.00. Part II., $2.00. 

Vol. III. The Suffering and Glorified Life. 1.50 



The Star of Childhood. A First Book of Prayers and Instruction 
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Cloth limp. .40 

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CARTER. Preparation for Worship. A Series of Five Short Ad- 
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COLES. Seven Addresses Delivered at St. Paul's Cathedral at 

the mid-day service, Good Friday, 1879. By V. S. S. Coles, M.A., 
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COMPTON. The Armoury of Prayer. A Book of Devotion. By Berd- 
more Compton, M.A., sometime Vicar of All Saints', Margaret Street. 
Fourth Edition. i8mo. $1 25 

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terpret the aspirations of a cultured dweller in towns; and it is emphatically a 
book of and for the times. 11 — Literary Churchman. 



DAILY GLEANINGS OF THE SAINTLY LIFE. Compiled 

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*#* These two in one volume, $1.75. 

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DEVOTIONAL WORKS. Edited by H. L. Sidney Lear. 9 vols., 
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FOR DAYS AND YEARS. A Book containing a Text, Short Read- 
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An Introduction to the Devotional Study of the Holy Scriptures, 

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Thoughts on Personal Religion : Being a Treatise on the Christian 
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GRANGER. Life Renewed : a Manual for Convalescents. Arranged 
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Tit. Rev. E. R. Wilberforce, D.D., Bishop of Newcastle-on-Tyne. 
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HALL. The Virgin Mother. Retreat Addresses on the Life of the 
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A. HALL, D.D., Bishop of Vermont. Small 8vo. $1.25 

HALL. Manual of Christian Doctrine : Chiefly Intended for Con- 
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HANSELL. The Sorrows of the Cross. Seven Sermons. Bodily 
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Reign of Law, by C. Gore, M.A. —The Justice of the Atonement, by A. T. Lyt- 
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tianity and Slavery, by H. Hensley Herson, M.A. — The Necessity of Pain, by F. 
A. Dixey, M.A. — Why We Believe the Gospels to Contain Genuine History, by 
Falconer Madan, M.A. — Evolution and Christianity, by Aubrey L. Moore, M.A. 

PARNELL. A^rs Pastoria. By Frank Parnell, M.A., Rector of 
Oxtead, near Godstone. 3d Edition. Small 8vo. $0.75 



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PRACTICAL REFLECTIONS UPON EVERY VERSE OF 
THE BOOK OF GENESIS. With a Preface by the Right Rev. 
Edward King, D.D., Lord Bishop of Lincoln. Crown 8vo. $1.75 

PRACTICAL REFLECTIONS ON EVERY VERSE OF THE 
PSALTER, OR PSALMS OF DAVID. With a Preface by the 
Rev. H. P. Liddon, D.D., D.C.L., late Canon and Chancellor of St. 
Paul's. Crown Svo. . $1-75 

PRACTICAL REFLECTIONS ON EVERY VERSE OF THE 
NEW TESTAMENT. With a Preface by the Rev. H. P. Lid- 
don, D.D., etc. Crown Svo. 

Vol. I. The Holy Gospels. $i-75 
Vol. II. Acts to Revelation. 2.00 

PRACTICAL REFLECTIONS ON EVERY VERSE OF THE 
PROPHET ISAIAH. With a Preface by the Lord Bishop of 
Lincoln. Crown 8vo. $1.50 

PRAYERS AND MEDITATIONS FOR THE HOLY COM- 
MUNION. By Josephine Fletcher. With a Preface by C. J. 
Ellicott, D.I). , Lord Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol. With red 
borders. New Edition. Royal 321110. $1.00 

An edition without the red borders. 32mo. Cloth limp. .50 

PRAYERS FOR THE SICK AND DYING. By the Author of 
" Sickness ; its Trials and Blessings." Fourth Edition. Small 8vo. 

$0.50 

PRYNNE. The Truth and Reality of the Eucharistic Sacrifice. 

Proved from Holy Scripture, the Teaching of the Primitive Church, 
and the Book of Common Prayer. By George Rundle Prynne, 
M.A., Vicar of St. Peter's, Plymouth ; author of " The Eucharistic 
Manual," etc. Crown 8vo. $1.25 

ROBINSON. The Church and Her Teaching-. A Series of Ad- 
dresses. By the Rev. C. H. Robinson, M.A., Vice- Chancellor of 
Truro Cathedral. With an Introduction by the Lord Bishop of Truro. 
Small 8vo. $0.75 

" It is quite impossible to express our estimate of the importance and useful- 
ness of this little book without reprinting the whole of it. A more excellently 
simple, clear, and persuasive argument of the Church's claim upon her own 
children and strangers, and in so small a compass, we do not remember to have 
seen. It ought to be in all parish and Sunday-school libraries, and in the hands 
of every Church colporteur and parish visitor."— Churchman, New York. 

SKEY. Works by L. C. Skey. 

" Lovest Thou Me ? " Thoughts on the Epistles for Holy Week. 
With an Introduction by W. H. Hutchings, M.A., i6mo. $0.75 

"All Your Care." With a Preface by Rev. R. W. Randall, M.A., 
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TEXT-BOOKS OF RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION. Edited by 

the Rev. Edward L. Cutts, D.D. 

1. The History of the Church of England. By the Rev. Edward 
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2. The Pentateuch. By the late Lord Bishop of Bath and Wells and 
the Rev. C. Hole. Small 121110. $1.00 

3. The Gospel of St. Mark. By the Hon. and Rev. E Lyttel- 
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VERBA VERBI DEI : The Words of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus 
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arrangement, and its consistent self-restriction to the ipsissima verba of our Lord, 
will assuredly give it a very high place among books of that class. 1 ' — Church- 
man. 

WILLIAMS. A Devotional Commentary on the Gospel Narrative. 

By the Rev. Isaac Williams, B.D.. formerly Fellow of Trinity Col- 
lege, Oxford. Eight vols. Crown Svo, as follows: Each, $1.25 

Thoughts on the Study of the Holy Gospels. 

Characteristic Differences in the Four Gospels—Our Lord's Manifestations of 
Himself — The Rule of Scriptural Interpretation Furnished by Our Lord— Analo- 
gies of the Gospel — Mention of Angels in the Gospels— Places of Our Lord's 
Abode and Ministry— Our Lord's Mode of Dealing with His Apostles — Conclusion. 

A Harmony of the Four Evangelists. 

Our Lord's Nativity — Our Lord's Ministry (Second Year) — Our Lord's Ministry 
(Third Year)— The Holy Week— Our Lord's Passion— Our Lord's Resurrection. 

Our Lord's Nativity. 

The Birth at Bethlehem — The Baptism in Jordan— The First Passover. 

Our Lord's Ministry. (Second Year.) 
The Second Passover — Christ with the Twelve — The Twelve Sent Forth. 

Our Lord's Ministry. (Third Year.) 

Teaching in Galilee — Teaching at Jerusalem — Last Journey from Galilee to 
Jerusalem. 

The Holy Week. 

The Approach to Jerusalem— The Teaching in the Temple — The Discourse on 
the Mount of Olives — The Last Supper. 

Our Lord's Passion. 

The Hour of Darkness — The Agony — The Apprehension — The Condemnation 
—The Days of Sorrows — The Hall of Judgment — The Crucifixion — The Sepulchre. 

Our Lord's Resurrection. 

The Day of Days — The Grave Visited— Christ Appearing— The Going to 
Emmaus— The Forty Days— The Apostles Assembled — The Lake of Galilee — The 
Mountain in Galilee— The Return from Galilee. 

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4 Devotional Commentary on the Gospel Narrative,' by the Rev. Isaac Williams. 
A rich mine for devotional and theological study.'" — Guardian. 



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THE BISHOP PADDOCK LECTURES, 1894. 

The Permanent Value of the Book of Genesis as an 

Integral Part of the Christian Revelation. By the Rev. 
C. W. E. Body, M.A., D.C.L., Professor of Old Testament 
Literature and Interpretation in the General Theological 
Seminary, New York ; Sometime Provost of Trinity Col- 
lege, Toronto, and Fellow of St. John's College, Cam- 
bridge. Crown 8vo, $1.50. 

" No greater service could have been rendered at this time to the average body 
of the church clergy than these four lectures by Prof. Body. Within the limited 
space restricted to the Paddock Lectures he has managed to give a comprehensive 
review of the so-called Higher Criticism, its history and principal authors, the various 
theories and conclusions of its literary analysis of the Old Testament, bringing to the 
front its unresolved problems, and philosophic or logical objections that are fatal to 
its assumptions, and, above all, bringing out that moral and spiritual character and 
purpose which stamps the Biblia Sacra as a Revelation from God for the behoof of 
man, but which mere perfunctory critical scholarship as completely misses, as the 
science of botany would do that confined itself to mere dried leaves, stamens, and 
pistils, and details of classification, without leading to the consideration of properties 
and uses, relation to pharmacopeia, commercial value, or benefit to mankind. Any 
Christian will be delighted with the incidental replies to Dr. Briggs, and the masterly 
expose of critical fallacies among German writers, especially the final discrediting of 
the presumptuous and utterly groundless dogmatism of such writers of the extreme 
school of Kuenen and Wellhausen. 

The fourth lecture on Creation and Paradise, and the fifth on the Deluge and 
the Patriarchs are intensely interesting, and show how Prof. Sayce and the Monuments 
of Archaeology are rapidly making short work of much of the learned ignorance of the 
Higher Criticisms. There are several interesting appendices." 

— The Church Eclectic, Utica, N. Y. 



THE BISHOP PADDOCK LECTURES, i8g2. 

The Sacramental System Considered as the Extension 
of the Incarnation. By Morgan Dix, S.T.D., D.C.L., 
Rector of Trinity Church, New York. Crown 8vo, 260 
pages, $1.50. 

" We have been always hoping that the church of these scientific days might be 
able to show how deeply grounded the sacramental system is in nature, and the first 
of these lectures leads us to feel that we shall not be disappointed. Dr. Dix . . . 
shows what the teaching of the church respecting nature has been ; . . . what the 
remedial and restorative effect of the Incarnation in nature may be. . . . It is im- 
possible in the short space of a review to do justice to the argument in these two first 
chapters, which we feel to be of great importance in these days." —The Churchman. 

" Presented, as it is in these pages, in a fresh and lively way, in clear and per- 
suasive argument, it touches the soul, excites the imagination, and deepens one's faith 
. . . The treatment is scholarly and philosophical, the discussion logical and con- 
clusive, the style clear and calm, and the volume is timely and helpful." 

—The Living Church. 

"It is most gratifying to have Dr. Dix's lectures on the sacramental system in 
permanent and available form. The volume will prove a valuable addition to the 
religious literature, not of the day only, but of the age. . . . The logical arrange- 
ment of the material is admirable, and the diction at once stately and precise." 

— St. Andrew's Cross. 



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